V 



VLf 



QUACKERY UNMASKED : 



A CONSIDERATION OF THE MOST PROMINENT 



EMPIRICAL SCHEMES 



WITH AN ENUMERATION OF SOME OF THE CAUSES WHICH 
CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR SUPPORT. 



By DAN KIXG, M.D 



"If quackery, individual or gregarious, is ever to be eradicated, or even 
abated, in civilized society, it must be done by enlightening the public mind in 
regard to the true powers of medicine." — Jacob Bigelow. 



BOSTON : 
PRINTED BY DAVID CLAPP. 

1858. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 185S, by 
DAN KING, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 
CiFT 
BERTRAM SMITH 

NOV 2G 1933 



PREFACE. 



Believing the diffusion of intelligence to be the 
only means by which the errors and mistakes of 
social life can ever be overcome, the author of the 
following pages has endeavored to present such 
information as might assist every impartial reader 
in understanding and judging of the numerous 
medical schemes and means now before the public. 
The work has not been written so much for profes- 
sional, as for general readers ; and it is confidently 
hoped that no one who gives it a careful perusal, 
will fail to be improved, although, among so many 
mooted subjects, it cannot be expected that every 
reader will adopt the views and sentiments of the 
author : but if it awaken $ spirit of inquiry, which 
eventually leads to the truth, an important object 
will be accomplished. It has been compiled and 
written, at intervals of respite from professional 
labors ; and if the reader should find the same sen- 
timents advanced and nearly the same language 
made use of more than once, in the course of the 
work, the author hopes to be excused by all who 
are practically acquainted with the interruptions in- 
cident to professional life. In considering the sub- 
ject of Homoeopathy, he has made numerous extracts 
from the Organon, and several other works, which 
are of the highest authority with that order ; and he 
acknowledges himself also much indebted to a work 
entitled, "Homoeopathy, its Tenets and Tenden- 
cies, " of which Prof. J. Y. Simpson, of Edinburgh, 
is the author. 



4 PREFACE. 

From the unsparing manner in which the au- 
thor has commented upon several kinds of quack- 
ery, some might be led to infer that he has 
been prompted by personal animosity. But such is 
not the case ; he has many highly esteemed per- 
sonal friends among those whose medical theories 
he wholly repudiates, and he entertains no ungene- 
rous feeling towards any individual, merely on ac- 
count of his professional creed ; but he has the cha- 
rity to believe that there are many honorable, well- 
meaning men, who have, some how or other, been 
led astray irjto the devious paths of empiricism. 
Yet the author would have been false to his own 
convictions, false to his profession, and false to the 
interests of humanity, if he had not given unreserv- 
ed utterance to the sentiments of his heart. And 
in offering to the public the following brief and 
imperfect sketches of some of the most prominent 
varieties of quackery, with a consideration of some 
of the causes which have led to their encourage- 
ment and support, he invokes the careful and can- 
did attention of the reader. The subject is cer- 
tainly one of importance, and deeply concerns 
every class and every individual in the community : 
and its examination should not be postponed to the 
moment of casualty or the hour of sickness, but 
should be made and settled in the quiet sunshine of 
health and serenity of reason. It is hoped, that 
from the hints here thrown out, many will be in- 
duced to examine more thoroughly, and under- 
stand more correctly, the true principles of medical 
science. 

DAN KING. 

Taunton, Mass., June 1, 1858. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. Page. 

Sketch of Medical History, ... 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Homoeopathy — Its Origin, Principles, Attenua- 
tions, &c. Carbo Vegetabalis, . . 92 

CHAPTER III. 

Homoeopathy — Carbonate of Lime — its uses. 
Only one article to be used at a time. Prov- 
ings, Homoeopathic Arguments, &c. . 44 

CHAPTER IV. » 

Homoeopathy — Indications of Nature ; Bella- 
donna in Scarlatina ; Necessity of Attenuat- 
ed Doses ; best Dose always the smallest ; 
Common Salt ; Silex ; Arsenic, . . 59 

CHAPTER V. 

Homoeopathy — Olfaction ; Extracts from Prof. 
Simpson; Considerations, &c. &c. . 75 

CHAPTER VI. 

Homoeopathy — Testimony in favor of Homoe- 
opathy considered ; Different kinds of Wit- 
ness required to prove different matters ; 
Witches, &c. 87 



b CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Homoeopathy — Development of Power by At- 
tenuation; " Small Dose, 7? by William Sharp, 
M.D., F.R.S., &c; Consumption cured by 
Dr. Nunez with the six thousandth Attenua- 
tion of Sulphur; the exact Remedy of Ho- 
moeopathy considered ; Danger of Homoeo- 
pathists who depart from the Rules laid 
down by Hahnemann, &c. ... 94 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Homoeopathy — Amulets ; Royal Touch ; Per- 
kinsism ; Medical Experience often unrelia- 
ble ; Homoeopathic Cures illusory, &c. 4c. 110 

CHAPTER IX. 

Homoeopathy — No uniformity in Homoeopathic 
Practice ; Libraries ; Influence of Homoeo- 
pathy upon Medical Practice, . . 127 

CHAPTER X. 

Homoeopathic Theology, . . . . 134 

CHAPTER XI. 

Homoeopathy — Its Changes and unsettled Con- 
dition ; Dr. Hering's Sentiments ; Worth of 
Homoeopathic Practice ; Anecdote by Dr. 
Mead ; Danger from Homoeopathy : Saliva 
of Boa Constrictor, &c. &c. . . . 147 

CHAPTER XII. 
Homoeopathy in Europe, .... 157 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Concluding Remarks upon Homoeopathy, . 166 






CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Extracts from the Encyclopoedia Britannica 
and London Medical Circular, . . Ill 

CHAPTER XV. 

Hydropathy, . . . . . . 183 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Thomsonism, 200 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Female Physicians, 210 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Indian Medicine, 216 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Eclecticism, 221 

CHAPTER XX. 
Chrono-Thermalism, ..... 236 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Natural Bone-Setters, .... 241 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Press, 247 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Female Influence, ..... 259 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Professional Discord, .... 265 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Clerical Influence, 212 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Vagrant Quacks, 283 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Nostrum Recommendations, . . « 287 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Allopathy, 291 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

The low Standard of Professional Acquirement, 301 

CHAPTER XXX. 

The Insufficiency of Medicine to accomplish 
all that the Public require, . . . 307 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Reflections, . . . . . . 313 

Regular and Irregular Practitioners in the Unit- 
ed States, 332 



ftUACKEHY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER I. 

SKETCH OF MEDICAL HISTORY. 

The early history of medicine is involved in 
much obscurity. Fable represents the healing 
art as a special gift from Heaven, and the first 
practitioners as having descended from the gods. 
For many centuries medical knowledge was con- 
fined almost entirely to the clergy. In the dark 
ages, when gross superstition held dominion over 
the minds of men, and polytheism peopled the 
universe with a multitude of deities, every dis- 
ease was supposed to be the work of some 
angry god, and the benighted sufferers sought 
relief by various superstitious rites and ceremo- 
nies, which were intended to appease the wrath of 
some imaginary demon. They offered sacrifices, 
2 



10 QUACKERY UNMASKED . 

made vows, did penance, and made use of 
amulets, charms, and exorcisms, hoping by such 
means to gain the favor of the gods. For cen- 
turies the art of healing seemed inseparably 
connected with that theological delusion, which 
so long held the world in chains. Under such 
circumstances, medicine could not be expected 
to make much progress ; but as superstition 
gave way, and reason and observation were 
adopted as guides, the profession improved, and 
made efforts to rid itself of its unprofitable 
alliance. It is probable that medicine received 
its earliest culture in Athens, Rome and Egypt : 
but so scanty and imperfect is its history, that 
we are often obliged to pass over whole cen- 
turies without obtaining any reliable informa- 
tion concerning its condition. But as there 
can have been no interregnum among diseaf 
efforts of some sort must have been constantly 
employed for the relief of the suffering, and 
thousands probably studied and labored, and de- 
voted their lives to the cause, and finally passed 
away without leaving any durable record of 
their efforts. 



MEDICAL HISTORY. 11 

As we casj^bur eyes over the brief and fabulous 
pages of ancient history, almost the first reliable 
name * which we find, as we descend the scale, is 
that of Hippocrates, who lived less than five 
hundred years before the Christian Era. He dis- 
carded the doctrine of demoniac influences, and 
took a common-sense view of the subject of 
medicine. Being himself a lineal descendant of 
a long line of medical ancestors, he entered upon 
the profession early in life, and pursued it with 
ardor to extreme old age. He did all that it was 
possible to do, in his time, to purge the profes- 
sion from superstitious and false notions, and 
establish it upon rational principles. Perhaps 
this was the first bold attempt to rescue the 
healing art from the dominion of fanaticism, and 
place it upon the solid basis of truth and rea- 
son. It was his good fortune to lay the corner 
stone of this mighty edifice, upon which all the 
superstructure must forever rest. But the dark- 
ness that superstition and bigotry had spread 
around him, was too profound to be wholly dis- 
sipated by one luminary. The deep awe with 
which pagans regarded dead bodies, and their 



12 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

superstitious ideas respecting the existence of 
the soul, presented an almost insuperable barrier 
to the study of human anatomy, and under this 
embarrassment it is evident that medicine could 
only make slow and imperfect progress. For 
along period nearly all anatomical knowle 
was derived from the lower animals, and 
quently was only comparative. 

The study of the healing art has ah\ ; 
"the pursuit of knowledge under difficult] 
Although it has ever sought th< I of the 

whole world ; the whole world has often tin- 
obstacles in the way of its advancement, 
herculean labor of succefi ' merations, and 

the efforts of the most powerful intellect 
been required to bring the pr pre- 

sent condition. So much per- air- 

ed labor has never been be 1 upon any 

other subject. The medical inquirer has ever 
been obliged to labor, clad in armor. Ignorance, 
bigotry and superstition have met him at every 
advance, and it has been only by overcoming 
these that he could hope to succeed. Ae 
these have declined, medical science has 



MEDICAL HISTORY. 13 

pied the ground. A knowledge of Anatomy 
laid the foundation for Physiology ; Physiology 
prepared the way for Pathology, and the Princi- 
ples and Practice of Medicine placed the experi- 
ence of the whole world under contribution. The- 
rapeutics claimed for her use the vegetable, mine- 
ral and animal kingdoms, the collateral sciences 
became cultivated as auxiliaries, and Botany, 
Mineralogy, Chemistry and Zoology became 
branches of medical study ; and from these Phar- 
macy sprung up to be the handmaid of Materia 
Medica. An inquiry into the laws of life and 
causes of death laid the foundation for Medical 
Jurisprudence, and the consideration of the in- 
tellectual and moral faculties built up a system 
of Ethics. So that now, medical literature em- 
braces a much larger field than any other pro- 
fession ; it may almost be said to have swallow- 
ed up all others. Whatever is valuable in his- 
tory is hers — the experience of more than two 
thousand years is open to her inspection and 
use — and all the improvements and discoveries 
that are continually being made in every depart- 
ment of science are submitted to her observa- 
2* 



14 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

tion and advantage. Her whole history sho 
that she has ever readily appropriated to her 
own use every valuable discovery which has by 
any means been brought to light. She has 
gleaned and treasured up every important item 
of medical knowledge, and has become the grand 
repository of all that is valuable in the pro 
sion. Nothing has been omitted or reje 
that was worth prcscrvi 

her observations down to the present hour, and 
her archives to-day contain every 
has been known, or is known, tha 
knowing; and whatever she rejects, the world 
may rest assured is worthless. 

Call this the old practice, or the new practice, 
or by whatever name you please, it ' 
less the only true science of medicine. 1 
founded upon the same principles of reason and 
common sense that all other sciences are built 
upon — it rests to-day upon those everlasting 
principles laid down by Pythagoras and Hip- 
pocrates, just as the science of Astronomy r 
upon the discoveries of Copernicus and Newton. 
It does not pretend to be perfect, and perhaps 



MEDICAL BISTORT. 15 

it never will be. It does not promise always to 
heal the sick, and never undertakes to raise 
the dead, but it is probably as near what it 
should be as any other human institution, and 
contains within itself the elements of perpetual 
progress. The greatest minds and most culti- 
vated intellects have labored long and zealously 
in its cause. If they have not been seen in the 
desk or in the forum, it is not because they 
were less learned, or less worthy, or their labors 
less important; but because their forum was 
the silent chamber of the sick, and their labors 
consisted more of thoughts than of words. But 
if any wish to sec%their written history and ex- 
amine their printed tablets, we are not ashamed 
to show them ; they will compare favorably with 
the productions of any other class of men, and 
it is certain that no other class has ever exhi- 
bited so much disinterested philanthropy. 

Legitimate medicine has no secrets. Of all 
her vast acquirements, she withholds nothing 
from the public. All that she has collected, from 
all ages, and nations, and countries, is freely 
offered to all the world, and whenever required 



16 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

is bestowed upon suffering humanity, without 
money and without price. Quackery may dash 
its mercenary waves against her, and send its 
spray mountains high; but she will still pursue 
the even tenor of her way, unmoved by its fitful 
storms. She has for her foundation a rock 
broader and more enduring than Gibraltar ; the 
everlasting principles of truth and reason I 
the pillars upon which she rests; her 
dedicated to humanity, and will stand until 
"last shock of time shall bury the empi 
the world in undistinguished ruin." 

Having given a brief description of Regular 
Medicine, it seems reasonable to inquire, in 
next place, what is Quackery. In general it d 
be said to be the employment of an; ine 

or medical scheme which the regular profession 
rejects; it bears the same relation to regular 
medicine that counterfeit bills do to the genuine. 
Both are spurious and worthless, and each 
dishonored at the fountain-head — both are the off- 
spring of unchastened cupidity, and both aim to 
take advantage of the ignorant and credulous. 



WHAT IS QUACKERY? 17 

If we search the history of quackery, we shall 
find that it consists of a multitude of pathies 
and isms — of pretended discoveries and great 
improvements. Each one has enjoyed its brief 
day of favor, and passed off to make room for 
others, perhaps differing in external appearance, 
but always of the same cryptogamian class and 
mushroom genus. 

We often hear persons declare that they do 
not know what to do, or what to believe, in re- 
gard to medicine, because there are so many 
different courses pointed out. If such people 
would just make use of the same common sense 
that they exercise in their every-day affairs, 
there would be no difficulty in the matter ; they 
would always come to a speedy and correct con- 
clusion. If one wishes for a guide in matters of 
law, he does not consult the newspapers, or take 
the advice of all the females in his neighbor- 
hood, but makes inquiry of some learned coun- 
sellor. If he wishes to know the value of some 
strange piece of metal, he goes directly to the 
goldsmith, and he does not think lightly of his 
opinion because the man may have pursued the 



18 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

same business for twenty or thirty years. And 
if the goldsmith decides that the substance in 
question is gold, he will not be likely to throw 
it away on his way home because the first 
he meets tells him it is nothing but mica. If 
one has a suspected bill, he goes directly 
bank, or some professed expert. But men will 
not always exercise the same commoi e in 

questions that relate to their life or health : \' 
often shut their eyes, and stop their < inst 

every legitimate source of information; \ 
will be guided only by their own morbid cur 
ty, or listen to the advice of the most in 
tent. An individual in whose general integrity 
they have no confidence, and whose opinion or 
word in any other matter is not confi 
worth a straw, is often taken as a guide in some 
deeply important medical question, without i 
misgivings. When we look around and see what 
ravages quackery in its multiplied and continu- 
ally multiplying forms is making among all cL 
es, we are almost ready to conclude that this is 
an age of extraordinary delusion, and that 
quackery never ran thus rampant before : bu 



WHAT IS QUACKERY? 19 

we turn over the pages of ancient or modern 
history, we shall find that the same elements 
have been always in operation; the wild vaga- 
ries of the imagination have ever been at war 
with reason and truth ; and common sense has 
been taken captive by ignorance and fraud. Nu- 
merous false schemes, quite as empty and quite 
as worthless as those of Perkins and Hahne- 
mann, have appeared, raged, boasted, and made 
their converts, and finally passed away. 

In the early part of the sixteenth century, a 
man by the name of Paracelsus, a native of 
Switzerland, made his appearance as a bold em- 
piric. Like all others of the class, he set at 
naught and held in contempt and derision all 
existing medical knowledge, and announced that 
he had made a great discovery that was to su- 
persede all other medical means. And what 
was this pretended discovery? Something to 
purify the blood, or an infallible remedy for 
rheumatism, or scrofula, or consumption ? No, 
none of these; but an infallible Elixir, that 
would prolong human life indefinitely, and ren- 
der man immortal. But, alas ! this superlative 



20 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

delusion was doomed to a speedy refutation in 
his own person, for lie died at the age of 48 
with his immortalizing elixir by his side. Be- 
fore his death, many tasted, believed, and drank 
of it — not to live forever, but to die like fools. 

All experience shows that mankind are ever 
more ready to believe pleasant falsehoods than 
disagreeable truths. Quackery takes advair 
of this proclivity, and therefore caters for the 
universal appetite. A perfect quack is a most 
obsequious sycophant — his medicines are ah 
exactly what the patient wants. They are m 
disagreeable, are perfectly safe in all cases, and 
always certain to cure. These are whal 
sick man wants, and therefore strives with all 
his might to believe, and often does come to 
lieve against the strongest evidence and clea] 
reason. The ancient quacks pretended to i 
their patients by the use of charms and 
and the modern quacks pretend to cure tl. 
by means often equally ridiculous and equally 
worthless ; and in each instance the intellectual 
and not the physical organs have been operated 
upon; and whenever any positive benefit has 



WHAT IS QUACKERY? 21 

resulted from such proceedings, it has been ac- 
complished through the medium of the mind. 

Although quackery comprises men and things 
of all imaginary colors, shapes and conditions, 
from the coxcomb who dispenses sugar pellets, 
to the knavish Yankee who assumes the savage 
with his pretended Indian remedies, yet there 
are certain family traits which are common to 
them all. All pretend to be new and very im 
portant discoveries — all are bitterly hostile to 
the regular profession — all boast of their won- 
derful success and rapid increase, and all ar^ 
only so many different views in the same great 
panorama passing rapidly along, never to return 

Having made these preliminary remarks, 1 
shall next proceed to notice individually some 
of the most prominent varieties of quackery 
that are now or have recently been actors in 
the great drama of medical delusions. 



22 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER II 

HOMOEOPATHY ITS ORIGIN, PRINCIPLES, ATTENUATION- 

ETC. CARBO VEGETABILIS. 

In Great Britain, when any particular k u i 
quackery gains a temporary ascendancy ( 
others, it is said to wear the bell Although 1 1 
have no authority to settle questions of rank b 
that army, I suppose no one will object to plac- 
ing Homoeopathy at the head of the regiment 
for a single review; and if, after sundry marches 
and counter-marches, this company shall be found 
at the other extremity of the regiment, no one 
need be disappointed. Samuel Hahnemann has 
been called the founder of this sect. He wa> 
born at a place called Messein, in Upper 8 
in 1755, and graduated at the Medical School at 
Leipsic at the early age of 20. During his p» 
pilage he seems to have imbibed a strong dislike 
to the profession, and instead of engaging in the 
practice of medicine after his graduation, he em- 
ployed his time in translating several German 



HOMOEOPATHY. 23 

publicaeions, and contributing to various miscel- 
laneous works. After plodding along in that 
way nearly twenty years, he broached the scheme 
of Homoeopathy, and in 1796 published his first 
essay on the subject. It does not appear that 
he ever practised medicine as taught at Leipsic, 
but, after probably forgetting most that he had 
learned during the brief period of his scholar- 
ship, he broke out with a scheme of his own 
getting up, although it does not appear to have 
been made entirely of new materials. It is well 
known that, at the time Hahnemann was a pupil 
at Leipsic, medical science in that school was 
extremely crude and imperfect, and much of the 
theory that was taught him has long since been 
exploded. Many important truths had been es- 
tablished, but these were mingled with numerous 
false theories, and the clergy had not entirely 
released their hold upon the profession. 

Hahnemann probably bid for his text-books 
the writings of Galen, Sydenham, Boerhaave, 
Haller, Van Swieten and Oullen; Jenner was at 
that time in his early boyhood, and the great 
lights which have since illumined the medical 



24 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

world had not yet dawned. He appears to have 
imbibed the wild, visionary spirit of Galen, and 
like him to have manifested a haughty contempt 
for the doctrines and opinions of all other men. 
Instead of setting himself at work to correct 
errors, reform abuses, and enlighten and improve 
the profession, he cast it all aside at a single 
dash, repudiated all the truths that observa- 
tion and experience had established, and Bet at 
naught every principle of philosophy and com- 
mon sense. Bitterly prejudiced against all I 
had been taught him at the schools, and inherit- 
ing an intellect in the highest degree chimerical, 
he made a bold attempt to set up a scheme of 
his own. This was based upon two prominent 
ideas — the first of which is comprised in the 
Latin phrase, " similia si/nilibus curantur" — 
likes cures like. This did not originate with 
Hahnemann, but was embraced in the old adi 
which had been current for centuries before 
his time, viz., that " the hair of the same 
will cure the bite." Hahnemann amplified 
idea, and attempted to prove it by facta 
observations. He discovered nothing 



HOMCEOPATHY. 25 

ly seized upon this old false proverb, and used it 
for the foundation of his system. Because laxa- 
tives sometimes cure diarrhoea, frost-bitten parts 
are sometimes relieved by being rubbed with 
snow, and a dose of senna sometimes cures colic, 
Hahnemann fancied that he saw his theory con- 
firmed. He forget another proverb, viz., " Like 
produces like in endless succession," and over- 
looked an established principle of philosophy 
which declares that (ceteris paribus) whatever 
increases the cause, increases the effect. His 
mind became riveted to this one idea, and he 
saw and heard nothing but " similia similibus 
curantur" 

It is impossible to conceive a greater absurdi- 
ty than is contained in this Homceopathic dogma* 
It is one of the wildest conjectures imaginable. 
The principle is contradicted by every rational 
thought and word and deed, throughout the 
world. Everywhere, in every vocation, and in 
every department of business, it meets with a 
flat contradiction. If the farmer's fields are too 
full of weeds, does he sow more weeds ? If the 
Boil is too wet, does he irrigate it ? If his team 
3* 



26 



QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



is overloaded, does he add more by way of re- 
lief? If his wheels are blocked, does he pile 
the obstructions still higher ? No, common rea- 
son and common experience teach the very re- 
verse of all this ; he cuts up the weeds, drains 
the wet soil, takes off a part of the too heavy 
load, and endeavors by the most direct means to 
remove whatever obstructs his way. If the 
painter's colors are too dark, will he add lamp- 
black to make them lighter? or if they are too 
light, will he use whiting to make them darker ? 
If they are too thick, will he add more dry 
terial? or if they are too thin, will he add tur- 
pentine ? Applied to any department of busi- 
ness, the idea is equally absurd and false. Eve- 
ry rational principle in medicine is founded 
upon, and guided by, the same kind of common 
sense that is always employed by the farmer and 
mechanic, and is manifested in every department 
of domestic life. 

Having laid down his principles, Hahnemann 
set about making experiments upon himself and 
others in order to find articles which, given to a 
well man, would induce the disease or symptoms 



HOMCEOPATHY. 27 

of the disease he wished to cure ; because, ac- 
cording to his doctrine, whatever would make a 
well man sick, would cure one sick and having 
the same symptoms. His theory of cure was 
this : " The medicine (he says) sets up in the 
suffering part of the organism an artificial, but 
somewhat stronger disease, which on account of 
its great similarity and preponderating influence, 
takes the place of the original disease, and the 
organism from that time forth is influenced only 
by the artificial complaint ; and as soon as the 
temporary effect of the medicine passes off, the 
patient is cured." This is the rationale of his 
theory. Now let us examine its workings. 
Take a case of epistaxis, which in common lan- 
guage is bleeding at the nose. Hahnemann's 
remedy is charcoal, which, according to his theo- 
ry, sets up in the system of the patient an arti- 
ficial action somewhat stronger than the original 
disease — or, to use his own language, " slightly 
aggravates the disease," and when the effect of 
the medicine passes off, the patient is to be 
cured. But how long must the patient continue 
to bleed faster than before, in order to be cured ? 



28 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

The effects of the medicine last, according to 
Jahr's and Possart's New Manual (page 565) 
just thirty-six days, and if the patient can hold 
out until that time, he will be sure to be cured 
homoeopathically. 

Take another case. A child is sick with croup 
- — he breathes with greac difficulty — he throws 
his head back and gasps wildly at every -ono- 
rous inspiration. He cannot hold out much 
longer, and the least aggravation of hii 
must destroy him immediately. But before lie 
can be cured or relieved homceopathically, he 
must swallow a medicine that will produce, at 
least, a small increase of the symptom- immedi- 
ately after it is taken. (See Organon of Homoe- 
opathic Medicine, page 204.] The articl- 
proper to be given are, according to Hull's Lau- 
rie, page 348, aconite, and sulphuret of potash. 
The effects of the former continue from one to 
two days, and of the latter sixty days. — [fi 
Jahr's Manual, pages 1 and 267.] 

So, then, after bringing separate parts of this 
fine theory together, we see that if the patient 
is not destroyed immediately by the small iji- 



H0MCE0PATHY. 29 

crease of his disorder consequent upon the first 
homoeopathic dose, he may live, if he can, until 
the end of sixty days, when he will surely be 
cured homoeopathically. In like manner this ho- 
moeopathic principle of cure may be applied to 
almost any other disease with the like result. 
Now what man of common sense would think of 
conducting any kind of business upon such a the- 
ory ? What man, having a friend nearly stran- 
gled, would draw the cord a little tighter to re- 
lieve him ? What engineer, whose boiler was 
ready to burst, would let on more steam to 
save it ? 

As has been already stated, Hahnemann's sys- 
tem was based upon two chief principles. The 
first was his " similia similibus curantur" which 
we have briefly considered. Of this he did not 
claim to be the original inventor, but said that it 
had long been recognized and acted upon. But 
he did claim to be the first to discover that the 
power of medicinal substances may be indefi- 
nitely increased by dilution and trituration. The 
power thus imparted to medicines he called their 
dynamic power ; in other words, their strong or 



30 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

powerful power. Having settled in his mind 
this second principle, he proceeded to fix upon 
the details, and accordingly established the fol- 
lowing rules of attenuation. When the article 
to be used is a solid, he directs one grain of it 
to be mixed and pulverized with one hundred 
grains of sugar of milk — the rubl be con- 

tinued a long time. This is what Hahnemann 
called dynamizing — that is, making the article 
powerful. When this process has been continu- 
ed long enough, it is called the first attenua- 
tion. One grain is next to be taken from ; 
and added to another hundred grains of 
and dynamized as in the first instance. T 
makes the second attenuation. One grain 
next to be taken from this, and added to 
hundred grains of sugar, and the process continu- 
ed as before. By this rule, all the at 
are to be made. Hahnemann considered the 
thirtieth as the most proper for use. 

If the medicine is a liquid, the first attenuation 
is made by adding one drop of the tincture to 
one hundred drops of alcohol contained in a new 
vial; it is then to have at least one hundred 



HOMCEOPATHY, 31 

shakes. The bottle is then to be marked 1, 
that is, the first attenuation. One drop from 
this vial, added to one hundred drops of alcohol 
in another new vial, with the hundred shakes, 
makes the second attenuation, and the vial is to 
be marked 2. One drop is next to be taken 
from the second, and added to one hundred 
drops of alcohol in another quite new vial, and 
after receiving its hundred shakes it becomes 
the third attenuation, and is marked 3. In this 
manner the fourth attenuation is made from the 
third, the fifth from the fourth, and so on up to 
any required number ; and as the power of the 
medicine is increased by every attenuation, it is 
generally thought most prudent to stop at thirty, 
as it might be unsafe to carry it farther — al- 
though Hahnemann did carry some of his as far 
as two thousand, but says he came very near 
killing his patient by giving him six or eight 
drops of this high attenuation. 

The rules for attenuation have already been 
given. Now let us suppose that the pharmaceu- 
tist — that is, the apothecary who prepares the 
medicine — in order to have a sufficient supply 



32 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

on hand to meet the demands of all his custom- 
ers, weighs out a single grain of chalk or any 
other article which he intends to attenuate only 
to the fifteenth degree ; now, how much sugar 
will it require to complete the process ? 

The computation is readily made as follows : 
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 grs. 
-~— 240 grains in a cubic inch. 
= 4,166,66?, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000 cub. in. 
-T- 254,358,061,056,000 inches in a mile. 
=== 16,381,000,000,000 cubic miles, 
-f- 263,900,000,000 cubic miles in the globe. 
= 61 globes. 

By this calculation, we see that the mass of 
sugar required to carry the process only to the 
fifteenth degree, would be sufficient to form six- 
ty-one globes of the size of the earth. 

The quantity of water or alcohol required to 
attenuate a single drop of any liquid to the thir- 
tieth degree, would exceed the utmost bounds 
of the imagination. 

If perchance a single drop of the juice of Pul- 
satilla, or any other medicinal plant, has fallen 
into the Atlantic Ocean, and the winds and tides 



HOMCEOPATHY. 33 

have given it a sufficient number of shakes, 
then every drop of that ocean is more than a 
million times as strong as the thirtieth attenua- 
tion; and yet, according to homoeopathic rules, 
in order to give it sufficient dynamic power, one 
drop from this ocean would require further at- 
tenuation by being mixed with the waters of mil- 
lions and millions of other oceans. The whole 
quantity required to attenuate a single drop of 
any fluid to the thirtieth degree, would be more 
than sufficient to fill the orbit of Saturn, to blot 
out the sun and quench the stars. 

If it be thought that these statements are ex- 
travagant and untrue, any one may make the 
calculation for himself, or get any competent 
mathematician to do it. But if the thirtieth at- 
tenuation creates so much surprise, what shall 
be thought of the two thousandth ? Hahnemann 
once, at least, according to his own statement, 
carried the process thus far; but no mathema- 
tician has ever undertaken to give the result of 
a dilution of a single drop to that extent. No 
one has ever dared to attempt the computation 
— the whole universe would be quite too little, 
4 



34 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

and infinite space scarcely sufficient to afford it 
room. In this contemplation we may be lost in 
amazement for a moment, but a little attention 
to the subject will show us that so much as a 
whole drop has never been attenuated to the 
thirtieth degree, only extreme fractional parts are 
carried forward to the end of the proc that 

at last an ounce of the liquor may not contain 
more than a decillionth of the drop first employed. 
Nearly the same result may be obtained in 
the following manner, viz. : Take a new vial 
and put into it one hundred drops of alcohol, 
then add one drop of whatever liquid may be 
required, give the vial one hundred shakes, and 
then turn out all except one drop. Quite as 
much as one drop will adhere to the rides of the 
vial after all has been emptied out that will run. 
Next add another hundred drops to this appa- 
rently empty vial, and give it another hundred 
shakes, and so continue the process up to the 
thirtieth time ) and the last hundred drops will 
contain the decillionth of a drop of the tincture 
first employed, if the process has been correctly 
performed. But whether it does or does not 



CARBO VEGETABILIS. 35 

contain any of the medicine used in the begin- 
ning, is beyond the power of man to tell. 

Hahnemann assures us that the almost infini- 
tesimal doses of articles that have been consider- 
ed inert, do, after being prepared in the manner 
described, actually possess immense power. 
The following are the effects of one decillionth 
of a grain of charcoal, as stated in Jahr's and 
Possart's New Manual, page 111. 

"General Symptoms. — Pains with anguish, 
heat, despair, or followed by languor. Rheu- 
matic drawing and tearing, with lameness, espe- 
cially in the limbs, with distress caused by flatu- 
lence, or with stoppage of breath, when affect- 
ing the chest. Pains as if sprained in the lower 
limbs, or as after straining by lifting. Burning 
pains in the limbs and bones. Throbbing in the 
body, here and there. Ailments caused by strain- 
ing in lifting, and by riding in a carriage. Chro- 
nic ailments caused by abuse of cinchona. Mor- 
bid conditions like influenza. Cholera. Tremor 
and twitching of single limbs, in the day-time. 
The limbs go to sleep. Paralysis. Most of the 
pains come on during a walk in the open air. 
The limbs, early in the morning, after rising, 
feel lamed and bruised. Debility of the bends 



36 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

of the joints. Very weak, sometimes into faint- 
ing, early in the morning, in bed, or when begin- 
ning to walk. Sudden prostration of strength. 
Towards noon he feels weary all over, with dis- 
position to lean the head against something and 
to rest himself. Paralysis and complete col- 
apse of pulse in the Cholera Asiatica. Liable 
to taking cold. 

"Skin. — Formication over the whole skin. 
Itching all over, in the evening, after getting 
warm in bed. Burning of the skin, here and 
there. Itch, especially dry, like rash. Fine, 
granular eruption. Nettlerash. Herpes. Red- 
dish-brown moles. Aneurisms by anastomo- 
sis. Aneurisms. Painless ulcers at the tips of 
the fingers and toes. Readily bleeding, fetid 
ulcers, with burning pain, and acrid ichorous pus. 
Chilblains. Varices. Glandular indurations. 

"Sleep. — Very drowsy in the day-time, pass- 
ing off by motion. Falls asleep late, sleepless 
owing to restlessness of the body. Nightly 
raving of the fancy, with starting on account of 
anxious dreams. 

" Fever. — Chilliness and coldness of the body. 
Chilliness, evening and night, followed by flushes 
of heat. Intermittent fever, with thirst only 
during the chilly stage. Frequent flushes of 
heat. Night-sweat. Sourish morning-sweat. 



CABBO VEGETABILIS. 37 

Typhoid fevers, with loss of consciousness. Col- 
lapse of pulse during an attack of cholera. Dis- 
posed to sweat. 

" Emotive Sphere. — Anguish and restlessness, 
especially in the evening. Dread of ghosts, 
especially at night. Little courage. Whining 
despair, with longing for death. Tendency to 
start. Irritable and passionate. 

" Sentient Sphere. — Sudden weakness of 
memory, periodically. Slow ideas. Fixed ideas. 
Confused head. Vertigo when moving the head 
ever so little, or after sleeping. 

" Head. — Headache from getting heated, or 
with trembling of the jaws. Headache with 
nausea. Nocturnal headache. Spasmodic ten- 
sion in the brain, or pain as from contraction of 
the scalp. Heaviness of the head. Oppressive 
headache, especially above the eyes, in the tem- 
ples and occiput. Drawing pain in the head, 
from the nape of the neck, with nausea. Stitches 
in the sinciput. Throbbing in the head, with 
rush of blood to the head, and heat in the same. 

" Integuments of the Head. — Tearing in the 
outer parts of the occiput and forehead, fre- 
quently emanating from the limbs. Painful sen- 
sitiveness of the scalp to external pressure. Lia- 
bility of the head to taking cold. Falling out of 
the hair, especially after a severe illness. 
4* 



38 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

11 Eyes. — Pain in the eyes from straining 
them by looking. Pain in the muscles of the 
eye when looking upwards. Itching, smarting, 
heat ; pressure and burning in the eyes and can- 
thi. Nightly agglutination of the eyes. Hae- 
morrhage from the eyes, with violent rush of 
blood to the eyes. Twitching and trembling of 
the eyelids. Near-sighted. 

" Ears. — Otalgia in the evening. Heat and 
redness of the outer ear, in the evening. Want 
of cerumen. Fetid otorrhoea. Stoppage of 
the ears. Ringing and humming in the ears. 
Swelling of the parotid glands. 

"Nose.- — Itching of the nose, with tickling 
and internal tingling. Scurfy tip of the nose. 
Frequent continued bleeding of the nose, espe- 
cially at night and early in the morning, with 
pale face. 

"Face. — Pale face. Gray-yellow comp] 
ion. Hippocratic countenance. Tearing and 
drawing in the fascial bones. Swelling of the 
face and cheeks. Crusta lactea. Herpes in the 
face. Ulcer in front of the ear and below the 
jaw. Eruptions in the face. Pimples on the 
face and forehead, also like acne. Swelling of 
the lips. Cracked lips. Pustules on the lips. 
Ulcerated corners of the mouth. Twitching of 
the upper lip. 



CARBO VEGETABILIS. 39 

u Teeth. — Toothache drawing-tearing, or con- 
tractive, or gnawing or bubbling, excited by cold, 
warm, and salt things. Chronic looseness of the 
teeth. The gums are sore, suppurate, and re- 
cede from the teeth. Bleeding of the gums and 
teeth. 

" Mouth. — Stomacace. Heat and dryness or 
flow of water in the mouth. Rough mouth and 
tongue. The tongue is sore and difficult to be 
moved. 

" Throat. — Sore throat, as if swollen inter- 
nally. The fauces feel constricted, with imped- 
ed deglutition. Smarting, scraping and burning 
in the fauces, throat and palate. Sore pain in 
the throat when coughing, blowing one's nose 
and swallowing. Oesophagitis. A good deal 
of mucus in the throat which is easily hawked 
up. Sore throat, after measles. 

"Appetite and Taste. — Bitter taste. Salt 
taste in the mouth and of the food. Loss of 
appetite. Chronic aversion to meat, butter and 
grease. Desire for salt and sweet things. After 
eating, especially after milk, considerable disten- 
tion, acidity in the mouth and sour eructations. 
Sweat when eating. Very much heated by 
drinking wine. Confusion of the head and pres- 
sure at the stomach, after eating. Excessive 
desire for coffee. Excessive hunger and thirst* 



40 



QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



Dyspepsia, especially after the abuse of mercury. 
Even the most innocent kind of food causes 
distress. 

" Gastric Symptoms. — Raising of air, or 
bitter eructations. Rising of the ingesta and of 
the fat one had eaten. Heartburn. Sour eruc- 
tations. Hiccough after moving about. Gulp- 
ing-up of mucus, after eating. Nausea early in 
the morning. Constant nausea. Waterbrash, 
also at night. Hcematemesis. Gastric derange- 
ment after drinking vrine. 

"Stomach. — Pains at the stomach, in 
case of nursing females. Heaviness, fulness 
and tension in the stomach. Contractive or 
burning-aching cardialgia, with a good deal of 
flatulence and painfulness of the pit of the 
mach to the touch. Clutching and trembling in 
the stomach. 

u Abdomen. — Pains in the hypochondria as if 
bruised, especially in the region of the liver. 
Stitching pain below the ribs. Tension, pres- 
sure and stitching in the region of the liver. 
Splenetic stitches. The clothes press on the 
hypochondria. Colic around the umbilicus, when 
touching the part. Heaviness, fulness, disten- 
tion of the abdomen, with heat in the whole 
body. Colic from riding in a carriage. Pres- 
sure and crampy feeling in the lower abdomen. 



CARBO VEGETABILIS. 41 

Pain in the lower abdomen brought on by a 
strain while lifting. Pinching in the abdomen, 
shifting from the left to the right side, with lame 
feeling in the thigh. A good deal of flatulence. 
Crampy flatulent colic, also at night. Incarce- 
rated flatulence. Rumbling and fermentation in 
the abdomen. Excessive fetid flatulence. The 
distress from flatulence comes on a«;ain after 
eating ever so little. Hemorrhoidal colic. 

" Catarrhal Symptoms. — Stoppage of the 
nose, or discharge of water, without catarrh. 
Violent catarrh, with hoarseness and roughness 
of the chest, tingling in the nose, with ineffec- 
tual desire to sneeze. 

" Windpipe. — Continual hoarseness and rough- 
ness. Morning or evening hoarseness aggravat- 
ed by talking. Catarrh and sore throat during 
measles. Tracheitis, witli tightness of the chest. 
Laryngeal and tracheal phthisis. Dry catarrh, 
with hoarseness and rawness of the chest. Cough, 
with titillation in the throat, or with raw and 
sore feeling in the chest. Spasmodic cough, 
also with choking and vomiting, three or four 
paroxysms a day, or in the evening, continuing 
a long time. Cough in the evening, before going 
to bed and in bed. Cough after the least cold. 
Painful stitches through the head, when cough- 
ing. Cough with expectoration of green mucus 



42 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

or yellowish pus. Suppuration of the lungs. 
Bloody cough with burning pain in the chest. 
Whooping cough. 

" Chest and Respiration. — Oppressed and 
short breathing, when walking. Tightness and 
oppression of the chest. Stoppage of breath 
caused by incarceration of flatulence. Painful 
beating in the head when drawing breath. Suf- 
focative paroxysms and paralysis of the lungs of 
old people. Pressure at the chest. The chest 
feels full, husky, oppressed with anxiety. Ily- 
drothorax? Smarting as from excoriation, sore 
pain and burning in the chest. The chest feels 
exhausted. Burning in the region of the heart, 
with rush of blood to the chest and palpitation 
of the heart. Rheumatic pressure, drawing and 
tearing in the chest. Brownish spots on the 
chest. Inflammation of the mamma?. 

"Trunk. — Rheumatic drawing, tearing and 
stitching in the muscles of the back, nape of the 
neck and neck. Itching pimples on the back. 
Itching, soreness and dampness of the shoulder- 
pits. Stitching in the small of the back when 
making a wrong step. Painful stiffness in the 
back and nape of the neck. 

" Upper Extremities. — Tearing and burning 
in the shoulder and shoulder joints. Drawing 
and tearing in the forearms, wrists and fingers. 



CARBO VEGETABILIS. 43 

The muscles of the arms and hands feel relaxed 
when laughing. Eigid feeling in the wrist-joints 
as if too short. Spasmodic contraction of the 
hands. Lameness of the wrist-joints and fingers 
when grasping any thing. Fine, granular, itch- 
ing eruption on the hands. Heat in the hands. 

" Lower Extremities. — The lower limbs feel 
numb. Laming-drawing pain in the lower limbs. 
Burning, tearing and drawing in the hip. Rigid 
and crampy-feeling in the hip-joints, thighs and 
knees. Uneasiness and heaviness in the lower 
limbs. Aneurism on the knee. The knees feel 
stiff and go to sleep. Herpes on the knee. 
Crampy feeling in the legs and soles of the feet, 
and, at night, in the calves. Sweaty feet. Chro- 
nic numbness of the feet. Redness and swell- 
ing of the toes, with stinging pain, as if frozen." 

Now if homoeopathy is true, all the forego- 
ing symptoms and affections, with sixty more 
belonging to the same catalogue, which are quite 
too vulgar for common readers, are produced 
whenever a healthy individual swallows the de- 
cillionth of a grain of common charcoal, and these 
affections last thirty-six days. (See Jahr's and 
Possart's New Manual, page 565.) 



44 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOMOEOPATHY. CARBONATE OF LIME ITS USES. ONLY 

ONE ARTICLE TO BE USED AT A TIME. PROVIXGS, 
HOMCEOPATHIC ARGUMENTS, ETC. 

Calcarea CarLonica — Common Chalk. — This 
is an important homoeopathic remedy. The dose 
is one decillionth of a grain, and the effects 
last fifty days. The following are the affections 
in which it is employed, as laid down in Jahr's 
Manual, Vol. I., pages 119, 120. 

" Indications derived from the ensemble of 
symptoms : For persons of a plethoric or lym- 
phatic constitution, with a disposition to Menor- 
rhagia, cold in the head, and diarrhoea ; or else 
for individuals of a weak, sickly constitution. 
Sufferings caused by a chill in the water : Diffe- 
rent affections of children and of women who 
have copious catamenia : Evil effects from 
lifting a weight ; Suffering arising from abuse of 
cinchona ; Sufferings of drunkards : Gouty no- 
dosities and other arthritic complaints : St. Vitus' 
dance?; Epileptic convulsions (after the action 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 45 

of cuprum) ; Hysterical spasms ; Obesity in 
young persons ; Physical and neryous weakness 
in consequence of masturbation ; Muscular 
weakness, difficulty of learning to walk, atrophy 
and other sufferings of scrofulous children ; Tu- 
mefaction and suppuration of the glands ; Caries, 
softening, curvature, and other affections of the? 
bones ; Rickety affections ; Spontaneous disloca- 
tions ; Arthrocace ? ; Polypus ; Encysted tumors ; 
Chronic eruptions ; Scabby and humid tetters ;: 
Scrofulous eruptions ; Fistulous ulcers ; Warts * r 
Chronic urticaria. Intermittent feyers, and fatal 
consequences from the suppression of those 
feyers by cinchona; Slow feyers; Melancholy; 
Hypochondria and hysteria; Delirium tremens ; 
Drunkenness; Megrim; Cephalalgia from chilly 
or after injury from lifting ; Fatigue of the head, 
in consequence of intellectual labor ; Scald- 
head; Falling off of the hair, also in parturient 
women, or caused by seyere acute diseases ; Fon- 
tanels of children, remaining open too long; 
Ophthalmia, eyen that arising from the introduc- 
tion of a foreign substance, or in scrofulous per- 
sons, or in new-born infants ; Blepharophthal- 
mia ; Spots, ulcers, and obscuration in the cor- 
nea; Fungus haematodes of the eye?; Amblyo- 
pia; Lachrymal fistula; Haemorrhage of the 
eyes?; Otitis?; Purulent otorrhoea, also that 
5 






46 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

proceeding from caries in the auditory organs ; 
Polypus in the ear; hardness of hearing, also 
that caused by suppression of an intermittent 
fever by cinchona; Parotitis; Scrofulous swell- 
ing of the nose ; Nasal polypus : Anosmia; Can- 
cer in the nose ? ; Coryza, with slow establish- 
ment of the catarrhal flux; Coryza and chronic 
obstruction of the nose; Prosopalgia; Tetters 
and other facial eruptions: Crusta lactea; Odon- 
talgia, also that of pregnant women, or of those 
who have too copious catamenia; Difficult denti- 
tion in children, with convulsions; Fistulous ul- 
cers in the gums; Ranula ; Amagdalytis and 
other phlegmonous anginas; Goitre; Anorexia; 
Dyspepsia, vomitings, sourness, pyrosis, and other 
gastric affections ; Induration and other diseases 
of the liver; Taenia; Colic; Abdominal spasms: 
Scrofulous buboes; Obstinate constipation; Di- 
arrhoea of scrofulous children, or else during 
dentition; Diarrhoea of phthisical persons; Chro- 
nic disposition to evacuate often in the day : 
Verminous affections; Hemorrhoidal suffering? 
and bad consequence of the suppression of the 
hemorrhoidal flux; Catarrh of the bladder; 
Hematuria ? ; Polypus of the bladder : Urinary 
calculus; Weakness of the genital functions, 
dysmenorrhoea, and amenorrhcea of plethoric 
persons ; Leucorrhoea ; Metrorrhagia ; Chloro- 



CARBONATE OF LIME. 47 

sis ; Sterility ; Abortion ; Cutting pains, too long 
continued after accouchement; Weakness, falling 
out of the hair, and other complaints of parturi- 
ent women; Odontalgia of pregnant women; 
Milk fever ; Excoriation of the breasts ; G-alac- 
torrhoea or agalactia; Ophthalmia, muscular 
weakness and acidity in nurses ; Chronic laryn- 
gitis with ulceration ; Chronic catarrh and ble- 
norrhoea of the lungs; Phthisical symptoms (tu- 
berculous phthisis); Curvature of the spine: 
Coxalgia; Spontaneous dislocation; Gout in the 
hands and in the feet, &c. &c." 

Here, then, are one hundred and twenty-five 
diseases or conditions, some acute and some 
chronic, differing as far as possible in their eti- 
ology and pathology, all to be cured or relieved 
by the decillionth of a grain of chalk. Carbon- 
ate of lime is one of the most abundant natural 
productions, and is found in a great variety of 
conditions. In its solid state it forms a consi- 
derable part of the crust of the globe, and in 
solution it is found to exist to some extent in 
almost all water. The best wells and purest 
springs hold more or less of it in solution ; it is 
even sometimes discovered in rain water. He 



48 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

who created the elements, and provided for man 
his food and drink, saw fit, for wise purpos 
to mingle carbonate of lime in nearly every 
thing which we swallow. The sick man swal- 
lows it in every glass of water, and in quanti- 
ties much larger than Hahnemann directed. And 
would it not be the height of folly to attempt 
to cure a patient by giving him a decillionth of 
a grain of the article, once in six or eight hours, 
when every spoonful of water that he swallows 
contains more than a thousand such doses, and 
when he has taken the same article every day of 
his life? Certainly, we should think that he 
had taken it long enough to cure him of any dis- 
ease that such an article was capable of curing. 
Nay, more; unless the disease existed in em- 
bryo, he could never have it at all, because he 
has used the medicine as a prophylactic from 
his earliest infancy, therefore he cannot possibly 
have any disease that carbonate of lime in such 
doses will cure. 

There is another consideration connected with 
this article. Hahnemann directs that only one 
single, simple medicine shall be given at a time. 






HOMOEOPATHY. 49 

In his Organon, pages 319 and 320, he says: 
" In no case is it requisite to administer more 
than one single, simple medicinal substance at 
one time." Further, he says: "It is impossible 
to foresee how two or more medicinal substances 
might, when compounded, obstruct and alter each 
other's action in the human body." He further 
says: "Some Homoeopathists have made the ex- 
periment, in cases where they deemed one remedy 
suitable for one portion of the symptoms of a 
case of disease, and a second for another portion, 
of administering both remedies at once, or al- 
most at once; but I earnestly deprecate such 
hazardous experiments, that can never be neces- 
sary." 

Now what shall be done ? Nearly every ho- 
moeopathic remedy is a compound, and consists 
of two or more elementary substances. But if 
you had a simple elementary substance, how 
could you administer it by itself alone ? Say, 
for instance (which is not a fact), that aconite is 
a simple elementary substance, and you wish to 
give the patient one drop of the thirtieth atten- 
uation of this drug in a spoonful of water — you 
5* 



50 



QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



give the patient aconite and carbonate of lime at 
the same time, and the quantity of lime in the 
spoonful of water exceeds the quantity of aco- 
nite more than a million of times. Give whatever 
medicine you will, in the purest common water, 
and you are giving it in conjunction with car- 
bonate of lime. If you were using ordinary 
doses of medicine, the inconsiderable quantity 
of lime in common water would not be a matter 
of any consideration; but if such infinitesimals 
act at all, they may be incompatible and counter- 
act each other. 

Hahnemann was the most inconsistent of mor- 
tals — he was not only inconsistent with reason 
and facts, and with every principle of phi] 
phy and common sense, but also often strangely 
inconsistent with himself. At one time he de- 
clares that large doses have little or no effect 
upon the system, because they have not been 
potentized by attenuation and dynamization. and 
at another time he says that all allopathic quan- 
tities of substances which may be used as homoe- 
opathic medicines are poisonous, and injurious in 
proportion to the quantity used. He who creat- 



HOMCEOPATHY. 51 

ed the world and peopled it with living beings, 
wisely and benevolently fitted everything to 
their use. Accordingly he spread over the 
whole habitable globe, two substances, which 
were constantly required for human sustenance. 
These are carbonate of lime and common salt. 
The one seasons our drink, and the other our 
food. We swallow both in the first act of deg- 
lutition, and continue to use them to the last 
hour of life. The Most High, when he had fin- 
ished the work of creation, pronounced it all 
very good. But Hahnemann discovered that 
this declaration was untrue — he has discovered 
that these articles, taken in such large quanti- 
ties, are poisonous, and tend to ruin the system 
and destroy life. In his Organon, page 55, he 
says : a It was high time for the wise and bene- 
volent Creator and Preserver of mankind to put 
a stop to this abomination, and to command a 
cessation of these tortures." And again he adds, 
" It was high time that He should permit the dis- 
covery of Homoeopathy." And what are the 
remedies which this beatific discovery have 
brought to light? They consist in giving the 



52 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

same articles, in infinitesimal doses, to cure or 
obviate the effects of these large poisonous 
allopathic quantities. Can a man who assorts 
that two and two make ten, be sane ? or can a 
man who publishes such astounding absurdities, 
be in his right mind ? 

In Hahnemann's French edition of his Mate- 
ria Medica, no less than thirty-five pages are 
occupied in describing the effects of one mil- 
lionth of a grain of charcoal. It may be asked; 
How did Hahnemann ascertain that such nume- 
rous, such remarkable, and such contradictory 
effects were produced by such infinitesimal d 
of an article, which, up to his time, had been 
considered nearly or quite inert? He and his 
followers tell us that these facts have been 
certained by observations and experience. It 
may be proper, therefore, to examine the pro- 
cess by which these and other discoveries of the 
kind have been made. 

A number of individuals, say twenty, more or 
less, have been selected, and to each has been 
given a homoeopathic dose of charcoal or any 
other article to be tried. Each individual is 






HOMCEOPATHY. 53 

told that the medicine is expected to produce 
marked effects upon him, and is requested care- 
fully to note down all his symptoms and feelings. 
Every physical, intellectual and moral pheno- 
menon that occurs in any such individual, after he 
swallows the attenuation, is considered as the 
positive effect of the medicine. If his face is 
flushed, the medicine has produced it — if he is 
inclined to sleep, the medicine has produced it — 
if he dreams, it is the medicine — if he is cold, 
it is the medicine — if he is warm, it is the medi- 
cine — if he is timid, it is the medicine — if he 
is courageous, it is the medicine — if his head, or 
eyes, or ears, or teeth, or limbs, ache, or if he 
laughs, or cries, or whatever else takes place in 
his person or feelings, it has been produced by 
the medicine. These are homoeopathic Provings, 
and by such means they ascertain by experience 
that the decillionth of a grain of chalk will 
"make the hair fall out" — pro'duce " pressure 
in the eyes, polypus in the ear, redness of the 
nose, yellowness of the complexion, eruptions on 
the lips, toothache, dry tongue, aversion to smok- 
ing, desire for wine, swelling of the stomach 



54 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

palpitation of the heart, ulcers of the legs and 
swelling of the feet," with a hundred other 
symptoms. Now suppose that, instead of the 
chalk, a few drops of pure cold water had 1 
given to each of the twenty men in question, and 
they had been watched, and their symptom 
as in the other case — it might he shown, by the 
same kind of experience, that five drops of wa- 
ter did actually produce effi y nume- 
rous and equally important. 

Now this is the kind of testimony by which 
Homoeopathy is supported — ridiculous in its 
character, unreasonable in its nature, and din 
ly contradicted by all reliable experience. But 
whenever we attempt to show its lity and 

falsity, we are met by its advocates with certain 
stereotyped arguments which they appear to 
consider unanswerable. They tell us that the au- 
thors of great discoveries have always been op- 
posed and persecuted, and point us to Coperni- 
cus, Galileo, Herschel and Newton; and because 
these men met with opposition when they first 
announced those discoveries which subsequ 
observations verified, they infer that Hon 






HOMCEOPATHY. 55 

thy must be true because it meets with opposi- 
tion. Now it must be a very poor case that is 
obliged to resort to so flimsy an argument for 
its support. It shows at once the want of tan- 
gible evidence ? when it rests its support upon 
such a futile abstraction. The cases referred to 
are in no respect parallel. Hahnemann was no 
more like Galileo, than like Alexander or Cae- 
sar. He made no discoveries of any kind — his 
similia similibus curantur being, as we have 
already seen, an old exploded maxim, and he 
himself assures us that this idea had been acted 
upon for many centuries. He revived this absurdi- 
ty, which had become nearly or quite exploded, 
and made it the basis of his whole scheme. But 
if the cases were parallel, the process of rea- 
soning would be altogether untenable, for it can 
never be supposed that every man who meets 
with opposition is in the right, nor that opposi- 
tion is any evidence whatever of the truth of 
any scheme that an individual may set up. This 
course of reasoning would make almost every- 
thing that is false appear true, and every truth a 
falsehood. The Alcoran and the Mormon Bible 



56 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

would each be proved true by the same course 
of reasoning. Their own argument, properly con- 
sidered, goes to prove the falsity of their doc- 
trine. The opposition to Galileo arose from a 
superstitious priesthood, which was wholly igno- 
rant of the principles of astronomy, and looked 
upon his announcement as a heresy which im- 
pugned the authority of the Scriptures. Igno- 
rance and superstition alone opposed him. As 
fast as astronomers became acquainted with his 
principles, they were satisfied of their truth. 
His early disciples did not, like Hahnemann's, 
consist of the ignorant, and the credulous, but 
they were thq. most learned philosophers and 
astronomers of Greece, men who had devoted 
their lives to the study of that science. The 
very reverse of this has been the case with Hah- 
nemannism: all the medical savans throughout 
the world rejected it as soon as they became ac- 
quainted with its principles; and if I am told 
that many people believe it now, I answer that 
many also believe in Ann Lee and Joe Smith. 

Another homoeopathic argument upon which 
its advocates appear to place great reliance, is 



HOMOEOPATHY. 57 

founded on analogy. When we dispute their 
provings of great effects from little causes, or no 
causes at all, we are told that such things, though 
strange, are nevertheless true, and confirmed by 
analogous cases. They say, see how very little 
poison is capable of killing a strong animal — 
how little virus will produce the smallpox. They 
ask us to weigh malaria and measure miasma. 
If there was any force in this argument, we might 
show, by the same kind of reasoning, that a spi- 
der might spin a ship's cable, an ant overturn a 
mountain, and the smallest insect drink up the 
ocean. These men forget that the science and 
art of medicine should be governed and con- 
ducted by the same reason and common sense 
that are employed in every other department of 
business. They fly off in a tangent to the wild 
fields of fancy, without taking account of their 
own position. It, is true that a single spark 
may explode a whole magazine, and a single 
match may inflame the most stately mansion; 
and if Homoeopathy were true, a few drops of 
water (which all acknowledge is the right reme- 
dy) would be sufficient to quench the conflagration. 
6 



58 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

It is not true that homoeopathic quantities of 
poison kill, nor that homoeopathic attenuations of 
variolous matter will produce smallpox. If Ho- 
moeopathy were true, the poison of the rattle- 
snake would be made stronger by dilution, and 
one millionth of a drop, commingled with the 
waters of all the oceans, would make the whole 
so strong that a single drop of that attenuation, 
either swallowed or smelt of, would produce in- 
stant death. If Homoeopathy were true, the 
drop of virus, which may produce the vaccine 
disease, should be attenuated by being mingled 
with a quantity of fluid sufficient to fill the orbit 
of the farthest planet, and its power to produce 
the disease would not be diminished but increased. 
Homoeopathic arguments never take effect, ex- 
cept upon feeble intellects ; they are so attenuat- 
ed as to produce no sensible effects upon any 
Bound minds. 



HOMCEOPATHY. 59 



CHAPTER IV. 

HOMCEOPATHY CONTINUED. INDICATIONS OF NATURE 

BELLADONNA IN SCARLATINA NECESSITY OF AT- 
TENUATED DOSES BEST DOSE ALWAYS THE SMALL- 
EST COMMON SALT SILEX ARSENIC. 

A little attention may teach any one that 
Nature herself never acts homoeopathically. 
If a man has swallowed poison, or other offen- 
sive material, she endeavors to throw it off by 
violent vomiting, or purging, and to protect the 
delicate villas of the stomach and bowels by an 
increased secretion of mucus. If the subject is 
plethoric, she often relieves him by epistaxis, or 
haemorrhage of some other kind. If dust has 
fallen into his eyes, she washes it out immediately 
by spontaneous lachrymation ; or if the neces- 
sary amount of effete fluid is not conducted off 
by cutaneous perspiration, some of the mucous 
membranes, or the kidneys, or all of these, are 
exerted for its removal. Nor does she repudiate 
counter-irritation : an internal affection is often 



60 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

relieved or cured by eruptions upon the skin, by- 
boils, carbuncles or other local inflammations. 
Even the sore legs of old people may often be 
regarded as Nature's method of prolonging life 
by counter-irritation. These are some of Na- 
ture's resources; and when unaided she can spon- 
taneously accomplish her purposes, we would 
not interfere with her operations; but if she is 
not able to do so without assistance, rational 
medicine takes the hint, and endeavors to carry 
out her designs. But if the spontaneous efforts 
of Nature are excessive or unnecessarily pro- 
longed, we endeavor to moderate or restrain 
them. 

Whilst Hahnemann was occupied by his lucu- 
brations upon his similia simUibus, he discover- 
ed, as he thought, that belladonna administered 
to a person in health produced symptoms similar 
to scarlatina. Elated with the discovery, he pro- 
ceeded to administer it as a prophylactic, and 
found, to his great joy, that those to whom it had 
been given, escaped the disc- This ha 

trial confirmed him in his opinion that belladon- 
na was a specific in scarlatina. Just because 



HOMCEOPATHY. 61 

the few persons to whom he had given the medi- 
cine did not happen to take the disease, he con- 
cluded that it must be a never-failing prophylac- 
tic. For a time, he and his disciples believed 
this to be a reliable discovery, and acted upon 
it with the utmost confidence. The idea spread, 
and was put to the test by physicians of all 
classes. Its insufficiency, however, was soon 
discovered, and trial after trial convinced all, 
who thoroughly tested it, of its entire futility a3 
a prophylactic, and its value as a curative became 
very questionable. Still Homoeopathy held to 
the delusion, and refused to give it up. As of- 
ten as it was thoroughly tried, it failed, and yet 
the petty disciples of Hahnemann continued to 
ignore its failure, and to this day there may be 
some who continue to harp their groundless 
boastings. If Hahnemann's golden dreams had 
proved to be true, and future observation had 
confirmed his hypothesis, it would have been 
indeed a priceless boon. Physicians of every 
class and grade would have seized upon it with 
avidity — a thrill of rejoicing would have elec- 
trified the world — Hahnemann would indeed 
6* 



62 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

have been the first Jenner — people of ev< 
name and nation would have delighted to do 
him honor, and the profession would have 
crowned him with its proudest laurels and given 
him a monument higher than the Egyptian pyra- 
mids. Unborn ages would have blessed him, 
and his fame would have endured forever. But, 
alas ! it utterly failed, and all the glowing anti- 
cipations of its author perished* 

"We have seen that the two principal features 
of Hahnemann's system were the similia simiU- 
bus curantur, and the infinitesimal dose. The 
latter seems to have been the consequence of 
the former. As one, in attempting to construct 
a machine for perpetual motion, soon finds him- 
self under the necessity of altering some part 
to make it agree with some other part, so Hahne- 
mann often found it necessary to change or 
modify some hypothesis to preserve the seeming 
harmony of the whole. According to his the- 
ory, he must give cathartics in dysentery, astrin- 
gents in constipation, narcotics in coma, emetics 
in obstinate vomitings, etc. Now a very little 
practice in this way would be sufficient to con- 



HOM(EOPAT^Y. 63 

vince any one that such measures would increase 
the difficulties and aggravate the complaints they 
were designed to relieve. Under these circum- 
stances, he seems to have been driven by neces- 
sity to make the dose so small as not greatly to 
aggravate the disorder ; and this led him to the 
use of infinitesimal doses, by which means the 
system was left undisturbed to overcome its 
derangement by its own inherent recuperative 
power. JJnassisted Nature did the cure which 
Hahnemann ascribed to his potions. The infini- 
tesimal dose became a fixed principle with Hah- 
nemann, from which he never departed. In his 
Organon of Homoeopathic Medicine, page 204, 
he says, " This incontrovertible axiom, founded 
upon experience, will serve as a rule by which 
the dose of all homoeopathic medicines, without 
exception, are to be attenuated to such a degree, 
that after being introduced into the body they 
shall merely produce an almost insensible aggra- 
vation of the disease." In his Organon, page 
289, he says, " The very smallest, I repeat, for 
it holds good as a homoeopathic therapeutic 
maxim, not to be refuted by any experience in the 



64 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

world, that the best dose of the properly select- 
ed remedy is always the very smallest one in 
one of the high dynamizations (+), or thirtieth 
dilution — a truth that is the inestimable pro- 
perty of pure homoeopathy." Hahnemann de- 
clared that " liquid medicines do not become 
weaker by greater and greater attenuation, but 
always more potent and penetrating." Accord- 
ing to him, also, succussion, or shaking, infinitely 
increases the power. He says, u Of l»tc years 
I have been compelled, by convincing experi- 
ence, to reduce the ten succussions, formerly 
directed to be given after each attenuation, to 
two." See Organon, p. 316. He gives this direc- 
tion, he says, in order to set bounds to the 
dynamizing process, lest the medicine should by 
too many shakes be made so strong as to be 
unsafe. 

Any one who wishes to try the experiment, 
can provide himself with thirty new vials, as 
directed in Hull's Laurie, page 51, and proceed 
to make the attenuations according to the rules 
there laid down. But if he attempts to carry a 
whole drop through to the thirtieth degree, with- 



HOMOEOPATHY. 65 

out leaving any part of it in the lower stages, 
he will soon find it impossible to proceed. The 
ratio of increase being one hundred; a few mani- 
pulations will soon convince him of his ina- 
bility to complete the process. But if he car- 
ries forward only one drop each time, he can 
easily arrive at the thirtieth attenuation. 

Let the drop of medicine used in the begin- 
ning be whatever it might, of the deepest color 
or most virulent poison, no perceptible vestige 
of it will be found in the last hundred drops. 
No mortal can, by any sensible or physical signs, 
by any chemical tests or any medicinal effects, 
distinguish the vial containing the last hundred 
drops from another vial of simple alcohol. The 
quantity of the medicine in this hundred drops 
is only equal to that which would be contained 
in any hundred drops taken from an ocean of the 
size of the earth multiplied sixty-one times. But 
we are told that much higher attenuations are 
often used, and that the drops so obtained possess 
immense power. Can human credulity be taxed 
beyond this ? The idea surpasses the utmost 
stretch of the most gigantic imagination. After 



66 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

one wild effort to grasp it, we instinctively look 
around to see if we are in or out of the body. 
A friend of mine has a fine morocco case contain- 
ing eighty small vials — forty of these are filled 
with dry globules, and the other forty with a 
fluid, and labelled — one " opium," another " aco- 
nite," another " belladonna," &c. Now if the 
labels should be removed, and the vials disar- 
ranged in the case, no one could ever tell which 
was the opium, and which the aconite, or which 
the belladonna. 

We will analyze a case in homoeopathic prac- 
tice. A man is sick with some rheumatic affec- 
tion. The doctor visits him and leaves six or 
eight small white powders. The good woman in- 
quires what is the name of the medicine, and is 
told that it is natrum muriaticum. She cannot 
comprehend the meaning of the term, but con- 
cludes that it is some newly-discovered homoeo- 
pathic remedy, and therefore asks no further 
questions. Now let us examine this case a lit- 
tle. Natrum muriaticum, in common language, 
is common salt. Hahnemann's dose is one de- 
cillionth of a grain, and its effects last from 






HOMCEOPATHY. 67 

forty to fifty days. The following are the dis- 
eases in which it is used by homoeopathic prac- 
titioners. (See Jahr's Manual; Vol. L, p. 386). 

" Allowing ourselves to be guided by the to- 
tality of symptoms, the cases in which this medi- 
cine may be used will be found to be: — Rheu- 
matic affections, with contractions of the ten- 
dons ; Paralysis of the limbs ; Scrofulous affec- 
tions; Enlarged glands; Bad consequence of 
vexation and anger : Weakness from loss of hu- 
mors and other debilitating causes, also that 
resulting from onanism; Hysterical weakness 
and syncope ; Warts ; Varices ; Intermittent fe- 
vers, also those which have changed their cha- 
racter from strong doses of cinchona ; Typhus 
fever ; Melancholy and hypochondria ; Sufferings 
from excessive study; Megrim; railing off of 
the hair in consequence of acute diseases, also 
in the case of parturient women ; Chronic 
ophthalmia and blepharophthalmia, especially 
in scrofulous individuals ; Amblyopia amauro- 
tica; Presbyopia; Otitis, with purulent dis- 
charge ; Coryza ; Crusta lactea ? ; Scorbutic 
affection of the gums ; Stomacace ? ; Dyspepsia, 
gastralgia, and other gastric affections ; Chronic 
hepatitis ? ; Flatulent colic ; Chronic constipa- 
tion ; Chronic diarrhoea ; Diabetes ? ; Chronic 



68 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

gonorrhoea ? Priapisnms ? ; Impotence; Dysme- 
norrhea; Amenorrhea; Dysmenia in young 
girls; Sterility, with too early and too profuse 
catamenia?; Leucorrhoea; Catarrh; Phthisical 
complaints ; Diseases of the heart ? ; Goitre ; 
Panaritia; Suppression of foot sweat, &c. <fcc." 

If the homoeopathic doctor is an honest man, 
each of the powders contains, as he supposes, 
one dccillionth of a grain of common salt. The 
patient has used salt, ad libitum, with his food, 
all his life, and may sometimes have swallowed 
an ounce in a day without any marked effects ; 
but now he is to take one decillionth of a grain 
every four or six hours, to cure him of rheuma- 
tism. The bulk of these powders is sugar made 
from milk or whey; and whether they contain 
anything else, no person in the world, except the 
one who furnished the doctor with the article, 
can tell. How large a globule would a decil- 
lionth of a grain of common salt make ? Placed 
upon a smooth surface, it could not be perceived 
by the touch, and it would not be visible to the 
eye, even with the aid of a powerful microscope. 

Hahnemann manifested a fondness for mineral 






HOMOEOPATHY. 69 

substances, particularly those which are totally 
inert — such as platinum, gold, silex, and others 
which are perfectly insoluble in the animal 
fluids, and can have no action upon the organism 
except mechanical, and as foreign bodies. Silica 
or silex is of that class, and is one of the most 
abundant of the earthy matters which compose 
the globe ; forming a large part of all the primi- 
tive rocks. It is seen almost pure in quartz, 
agate, flint and rock crystal, and much of the 
sand upon the sea-shore is composed of the same 
material. Nearly insoluble and unchangeable in 
its nature, and yet capable of being reduced 
to a very fine powder, it was a good material for 
Hahnemann to submit to his dynamizing process, 
and accordingly he made it one of his standing 
remedies. The following are some of the cases 
in which he directs its use, as given in Jahr's 
Manual, Vol. I., page 547. 

" Allowing ourselves to be guided by the to- 
tality of symptoms, the cases in which this medi- 
cine may be used appear to be: — Bad effects 
from the abuse of mercury ; Hysterical sufferings ; 
Physical weakness in children, with difficulty in 
learning to walk ; Paralysis ; Epilepsy ;. Nervous 
7 



70 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

excitement, with sleeplessness ; Chronic rheuma- 
tic and arthritic affections ; Phlegmonous inflam- 
mations; Lymphatic tumors; Scrofulous and 
rachitic affections also with enlargement of the 
head, and slow closing up of the fontanelle ; Ob- 
struction, inflammation, induration and ulceration 
of the glands ; Inflammation, softening, ulceration 
and other diseases of the bones ; Abscess ; 
Scirrhous induration; Ulcers, almost of all 
kinds, especially in squalid, cachectic persons, 
and those who are addicted to spirituous drinks ; 
Scrofulous, mercurial and scorbutic ulcers ; Can- 
cerous ulcers ; Hydarthra ? ; Hysteria ; Megrim : 
Vertigo ; Scald-head ; Falling off of the hair in 
consequence of acute diseases ; Fungus haema- 
todes in the eye ; Ulcers on the cornea ; Cata- 
ract ; Amblyopia amaurotica ; Hardness of hear- 
ing ; Cancer in the lips ; Fever during dentition ; 
Bulimy, pituita in the stomach, gastralgia, dys- 
pepsia, and other gastric affections ; Hepatic 
abscess; Vermiculous affections, especially in 
scrofulous subjects; Chronic gonorrhoea; Hydro- 
cele, especially in scrofulous subjects; Excori- 
ated mammae; Ulceration and also cancerous 
affections of the mammae; Chronic coryza and 
obstinate disposition to take cold in the head; 
Phthisical sufferings ; Inflammatory swelling of 
the knee; Panaritium; Paralysis of the hands, 
also in leprous subjects; &c. Ac." 



HOMCEOPATHY. 71 

One decillionth of a grain is the pr-oper dose, 
and the effects last from seven to eight weeks. 

It is not pretended that Hahnemann's Materia 
Medica consisted wholly of inert substances ; far 
otherwise. Besides these, he also made use of 
many such articles as in common language are 
called poisons, such as arsenic, phosphorus, hen- 
bane, nox vomica, &c« Accordingly, arsenicum 
album, or white arsenic, has become one of the 
most common homoeopathic remedies; — its ef- 
fects are supposed to last from thirty-six to 
forty days. It is directed to be used in the 
following cases. See Jahrs Manual, Vol. L, 
page 53. 

" Allowing ourselves to be guided by the 
totality of the symptoms, the cases in which this 
medicine may be employed will appear to be : — 
Affections, especially of exhausted persons, of 
nervous, or of leucophlegmatic constitution, with 
tendency to catarrhs and to blenorrhosa, or to 
dropsical affections ; or also affections of persons 
of lymphatic constitution, with tendency to 
eruptions, tetters, ulcerations, and suppurations ; 
or persons of bilious constitution, of choleric 
or lively temperament, or with a tendency to 



72 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

melancholy, &c. ; Suffering of drunkards; Evil 
effects of a chill in the water ; Cachexia from 
the abuse of quinine or of iodium; Atrophy of 
scrofulous infants and atrophy of grown persons ; 
Scrofulous affections; Icterus; Chlorosis?; 
Dropsical affections ; Nervous weakness of hys- 
terical persons with fainting fits ; Spasms and 
convulsions; Epileptic convulsions; Paralysis?; 
Muscular weakness with trembling of the limbs ; 
Trembling of drunkards ; Miliary eruptions, net- 
tle-rash and itchy eruptions; Plcctonoides and 
furfuraceous tetters; Gnawing tetters; Putrid, 
cancerous and gangrenous ulcers; Carbuncles; 
Sanguineous pemphigus ; Varioloid diseases and 
smallpox; Warts?; Chilblains?; Varices: Co- 
ma vigil and coma somnolentum; Intermittent 
fevers, even those from the abuse of quinine, and 
chiefly tertian and quartan fevers ; Typhus 
fevers with symptoms of putridity; Inflammatory 
fevers with bilious or mucous state ; Slow, hectic 
fevers; Gastric fevers; Religious melancholy: 
Gloomy melancholy, even with inclination to 
suicide ; Mental alienation of drunkards ; Mad- 
ness?; Imbecility; Softness of the brain?: Me- 
grim; Scald-head with swelling of the glands of 
the nape of the neck, and of the neck : Ophthal- 
mia (arthritic ?), Rheumatic ? Ophthalmia in con- 
sequence of griping, or of a chill in the water : 



HOMOEOPATHY. 73 

Specks and ulcers of the cornea ; Cancer in the 
nose, in the face and in the lips; Milky scurf ; 
Red pimples in the face ; Mealy tetters in the 
face; Prosopalgia; Chronic coryza; Enlarge- 
ment of the sub-maxillary glands ; Stomacace ; 
Aphtha in the mouth ; Inflammatory swelling of 
the tongue ; -Angina, even that caused by the 
smallpox; Gangrenous angina?; State of indi- 
gestion in consequence of a chill of the stomach 
from ice, acids, &c. ; Sea-sickness ; Sufferings in 
consequence of bathing in the sea; Dyspepsia 
with vomiting of food ; Hasmatemesis ; Vomitings 
of drunkards and of pregnant women; Gastric 
and bilious affections; Meloena; Acute Gastritis; 
Scirrhus in the stomach ? ; Cholerine ; Asiatic 
cholera; sufferings in consequence of cholera; 
Colic; Spasmodic colic; Abdomino-glandular 
obstruction of children ; Ascites ; Scrofulous bu- 
boes; Diarrhoea, also that of children during 
detention, and in consequence of the smallpox; 
Dysentery ; Lienteria ? ; Hemorrhoidal suffer- 
ings ; Ischuria ; Paralysis of the bladder ; Dysu- 
ria; Inflammation and swelling of the genital 
parts; Erysipelas of the scrotum?; Amenor- 
rhoea; Leucorrhoea; Cancer and scirrhus of the 
uterus ? ; Nausea and vomiting of pregnant 
women ; Gripe ; Acute and chronic laryngitis ; 
Hooping-cough; Haemoptysis?; Phthisical symp- 
7* 



74 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

toms ; Hydrothorax ; Asthmatic affections ; Spas- 
modic asthma ; Asthma of Millar ; Angina of the 
chest; Organic affections of the heart; Nostal- 
gia ; Sciatica ; Ulcers of the legs ; White swell- 
ing?; Phlegmonous inflammation of the feet; 
Coxalgia; Discolored nails ; Gout in the feet.' ' 

Being in the form of a fine white powder, and 
nearly destitute of either smell or taste, it is 
easily incorporated with sugar of milk in any 
desirable proportions. Whilst most other poi- 
sons are either very acrid or extremely bitter, 
arsenic, having no sensible properties, is easily 
given in any quantity which the practitioner 
may think proper to administer. But if the 
homoeopathic practitioner is always honest, and 
strictly adheres to the principles of his great 
master, no one need be alarmed if he uses the 
thirtieth attenuation of arsenic in every case 
each day of his life. If he should live to the 
age of Methuselah, and dispense powders of that 
kind all his life, the whole amount of arsenic 
that he would thus use would not in the least 
harm the smallest insect if given at a single 
dose. 



HOMCEOPATHY. 75 



CHAPTER V. 

HOMCEOPATHY CONTINUED, OLFACTION EXTRACTS FROM 

PROF. SIMPSON CONSIDERATIONS, ETC. ETC. 

In his Lesser Writings, page 822, Hahnemann 
describes the manner by which simple globules, 
composed of nothing but sugar and starch, are 
to be medicated and prepared for use. This is 
done by shaking one medicated globule with 
several thousands of unmedicated globules. u This 
much (he observes) is deducible from experi- 
ments, that a single dry globule, imbibed with 
a high medicinal dynamization, communicates to 
13500 unmedicated globules with which it is 
shaken for five minutes, medicinal power fully 
equal to what it possessed itself, without suffer- 
ing any diminution of power itself." And he 
continues to say, u It seems that this marvellous 
communication takes place by means of proxi- 
mity, and contact, and is a sort of infection, 
bearing a strong resemblance to the infection of 



76 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

healthy persons by a contagion brought near or 
in contact with them." Here one might suppose 
that Hahnemann had arrived at the acme of his 
fanciful speculations, and had taxed the credu- 
lity of his followers to the utmost of their en- 
durance. But not so ; he goes further. You 
are not allowed to swallow even these infected 
globules, but only to smell of them. This pro- 
cess he calls olfaction. The following is from a 
work by Prof. J. Y. Simpson, of Edinburgh, 
entitled " Homoeopathy : its Tenets and Ten- 
dencies," page 74-77. 

" Writing in 1833, Hahnemann observes : l All 
that homoeopathy is at all capable of curing (and 
what can it not cure beyond the domain of mere 
manual surgical affections ?) among excessively 
chronic diseases that have not been quite ruined 
by allopathy, as also among acute diseases, will 
be most safely and certainly cured by this mode 
of Olfaction. I can scarcely (he adds) name 
one in a hundred out of the many patients who 
have sought the advice of myself and assistant 
during the past year, whose chronic or acute 
disease we have not treated with the most hap- 
py results, solely by means of this Olfaction. 
During the latter half of this year, moreover, I 



HOMOEOPATHY. 77 

have become convinced of what I never could 
previously have believed, that by this mode of 
Olfaction, the power of the medicine is exer- 
cised upon the patient in at least the same de- 
gree of strength, and that more quietly, and yet 
just as long as when the dose of medicine is 
taken by the mouth; and that, consequently, the 
intervals at which the Olfaction should be re- 
peated, should not be shorter than in the inges- 
tion of the material dose by the mouth." — (Or- 
ganon, p. 332.) 

u Dr. Gross, using, as we have seen, medicines 
of the highest potency, ' often contented himself 
with allowing the patients to smell the reme- 
dy — whether with one or more globules at one 
time I am not aware — waiting patiently for 
foiw weeks or so, for the completion of the cure, 
not even permitting a second smell or dose, so 
mild yet certain is the remedial action. 7 

" Hahnemann appears to have employed the 
exhibition of his infinitesimal drugs by smelling 
in two different ways, viz. : — First, By some- 
times making the patients smell a dried decil- 
lionth globule ; — or, Secondly, By dissolving a 
globule or two in water and spirits, and making 
the patient hold his nose over the surface of 
this solution of it. 

" In relation to the smelling of dried globules, 



78 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

Hahnemann observes, e A globule, of which ten, 
twenty, or a hundred weigh a grain, impregnat- 
ed with the 30th potentised dilution, and then 
dried, retains for this purpose (of olfaction) all 
its power undiminished for at least eighteen or 
twenty years (my experience extends this length 
of time), even though the phial be opened a 
thousand times during that period, if it be but 
protected from heat and the sun's light. But 
(he continues), should both nostrils be stopped 
up by coryza or polypus, the patient should in- 
hale by the mouth, holding the orifice of the 
phial betwixt his lips. In little children, it may 
be applied close to their nostrils whilst they are 
asleep, with the certainty of producing an effect. 
The medicinal aura thus inhaled comes in con- 
tact with the nerves seated in the walls of the 
spacious cavities it traverses, without obstruc- 
tion, and thus produces a salutary influence on 
the vital force in the mildest, yet most power- 
ful manner. And this (he adds) is much prefer- 
able to any other mode of administering the 
medicaments in substance by the mouth.' — ( Or- 
ganon, p. 332. ) 

" In a note of Hahnemann's, translated by Dr. 
Dudgeon in his l Lesser Writings,' the founder 
of homoeopathy states — C A globule of this 
kind — for example, of staphisagra?, of the 30th 



HOMCEOPATHY. 79 

dilution — which, in the course of twenty years, 
has been smelt several hundreds of times, after 
opening the bottle in which it was, for a certain 
symptom that always recurred of the same cha- 
racter, possesses at this hour equal power as at 
first, which could not be the case did it not con- 
tinue exhaling its medicinal power in an inex- 
haustible manner.' Hahnemann further states : l It 
is especially in the form of vapor, by smelling and 
inhaling the medicinal aura, that is always ema- 
nating from a globule, impregnated with a medi- 
cinal fluid in a high development of power, and 
placed, dry, in a small phial, that the homoeo- 
pathic remedies act most surely and most power- 
fully. The homoeopathic physician allows the 
patient to hold the open mouth of the phial first 
in one nostril, and in the act of inspiration inhale 
the air out of it, and then, if it is wished to give 
a stronger dose, smell in the same manner with 
the other nostril more or less strongly, accord- 
ing to the strength it is intended the dose should 
be.' — (Organojij]). 331.^ 

u Dr. Crosiero, of Paris, in a communication 
published subsequently to Hahnemann's death, 
gives some more particulars respecting the prac- 
tice of Hahnemann in the last years of his life, 
of which he assures us he was often a witness. 
1 Hahnemann,' he writes, ' always made use of the 



80 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

well-known small globules, which were generally 
impregnated with the 30th dilution, both for 

acute and chronic diseases He latterly 

employed olfaction very frequently. For this 
end he put one or two globules in a small medi- 
cine phial, containing two drachms of alcohol, 
mixed with an equal quantity of water, which 
he caused to be inhaled once or twice with each 
nostril — never oftener. My own wife (says 
Dr. Crosiero) was cured by him in this manner 
of a violent pleurisy, in the course of five hours. 
In chronic diseases, happen what might, he never 
allowed this olfaction to be repeated oftener 
than once a week. And he gave besides, for in- 
ternal use, nothing but plain milk-sugar. And 
in this manner he effected the most marvellous 
cures, even in cases in which the rest of us had 
been able to do nothing.' 

" According to Hahnemann, even the olfaction 
or smelling of substances, which have no smell, 
may produce immediately direct and decided 
therapeutic effects. ' If,' says he, ■ a grain of 
gold leaf be triturated strongly for an hour in 
a porcelain mortar with one hundred grains of 
sugar of milk, the powder that results (the first 
trituration) possesses a considerable amount of 
medicinal power. If a grain of this powder 
be triturated as strongly and as long with ano- 



HOMOEOPATHY. * 81 

ther hundred grains of sugar of milk, the pre- 
paration attains a much greater medicinal power, 
and if this process be continued, and a grain of 
the previous trituration be rubbed up as strong- 
ly and for as long a time, each time with a fresh 
hundred grains of sugar of milk, until, after 
fifteen such triturations, the quintillionth atten- 
uation of the original grain of gold leaf is ob- 
tained, then the last attenuations do not display 
a weaker, but, on the contrary, the most pene- 
trating, the greatest medicinal power of the 
whole of the attenuations. A single grain of 
the last (quintillionth) attenuation put into a 
small, clean phial, will restore a morbidly des- 
ponding individual, with a constant inclination 
to commit suicide, in less than an hour, to a 
peaceful state of mind, to love of life, to happi- 
ness, and horror of his contemplated act, if he 
perform but a single Olfaction in the phial, or 
put on his tongue a quantity of this powder no 
bigger than a grain of sand.' — (Lesser Writ- 
ings, p. 82 1.) 

u But what in reality is the quintillionth tritu- 
ration of a grain of Gold — a single olfaction 
of which, Hahnemann, in the preceding para- 
graph, declares to be capable of restoring a 
morbidly desponding individual to a peaceful 
state of mind, etc. ? To reduce a single grain 
8 



82 * QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

of Gold, in accordance with Hahnemann's own 
rules, to the quintillionth trituration, a mass of 
sugar, not only higher and broader than the en- 
tire range of the Alps, or of the Andes, or of the 
Himalayas, but as large, at least, as fifty globes 
or worlds the size of the entire Earth, would be 
required. Yet Hahnemann avers that one sin- 
gle grain of Gold, distributed duly and equally 
through such an inconceivable mass, or series of 
masses, of sugar, would invest every single grain 
of these masses taken and put into a small clean 
phial, with a power of restoring a ' morbidly 
desponding individual, with a constant inclina- 
tion to commit suicide, in less than an hour, to a 
peaceful state of mind, to love of life, to happi- 
ness, and horror of his contemplated act. if be 
perform but a single olfaction in the phial." 

The method of treating diseases by what Hah- 
nemann calls olfaction, seems to cap the climax 
of his great discoveries — it was the culminating 
point to which he finally arrived after long years 
of laborious investigation. He fixed upon this 
as the safest and most effectual method, and gave 
it his last approving touch. According to this 
idea, the insensible evaporation that is supposed 
to pass off from a few minute globules, which 



HOMOEOPATHY. 83 

afford no sensible evidence of any thing more 
than starch and sugar of milk, is efficacious in 
removing disease. This was not a hasty scheme, 
or mere theory, with Hahnemann, but a method 
deliberately formed and adopted, and to which 
he conformed his practice for many years to- 
wards the close of his life ; and it seems to 
deserve at least a brief consideration. 

When we look around us, we see that both the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms are undergoing 
continual change. All organic matter is subject 
to decomposition, and the common atmosphere is 
the great sewer into which all the light particles 
of effete matter are thrown. With these the 
air around us is always charged, to a greater or 
less extent. We imbibe these matters by every 
inspiration. Sometimes the air which we breathe 
is highly charged with the delicious aroma of 
fragrant blossoms — at another, with the foetid 
effluvia of some filthy receptacle. At one time, 
we inhale the delightful flavor of the rose or 
lily; fe and at another, the noxious exhalations of 
the hemlock or deadly night-shade. The com- 
mon air is always much more highly charged 



84 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

with medicinal substances than any of Hahne- 
mann's smelling bottles ever were or ever could 
be. We seldom if ever breathe pure unadulte- 
rated atmospheric air. In crowded places it is 
laden with all sorts of animal exhalations, and 
we cannot live in the vicinity of the hemlock or 
henbane, without imbibing more or less of their 
poisonous emissions. Every peach blossom im- 
parts to the surrounding air hydrocyanic acid, 
and every poppy exhales opium. And the doses 
of such things which we daily and unconsciously 
receive into our systems, exceed, by millions and 
millions of times, any amount that could ever 
be administered by Hahnemann's method of 
olfaction. It is not unreasonable to suppose 
that the air which we breathe every day, brings 
on the wings of the wind, from the noxious plants 
of India, and the venomous serpents of Peru, poi- 
sons, which after their thousand attenuations and 
succussions, would be sufficient to destroy all 
mankind, if there was any truth in Hahnemann's 
doctrines. The poisonous fumes of smelting 
ores in Illinois and California, would reach and 
cut off the farthest tenant of the globe, if sue- 



HOMCEOPATHY. 85 

cussion and attenuation increased instead of 
diminishing their intensity. These considera- 
tions might well lead us to inquire whether Hah- 
nemann was so monstrously deceived himself, or 
only sought to deceive others ? This question 
I shall not attempt to decide, but will leave it 
for his disciples to dispose of as they think pro- 
per. One or the other of the propositions must 
be true — Hahnemann was either a monomaniac 
or a great deceiver. 

But I am told that homoeopathic practitioners 
no longer treat diseases by the method of olfac- 
tion. That may be true, although it was the 
very essence of all Hahnemann's pretended dis- 
coveries. This I do know, that, not many years 
ago, I attended a very respectable lady, who 
previous to my attendance had been under the 
care of a homoeopathic practitioner. Her cot- 
tage was situated in the midst of an immense 
flower garden, at that time in full blossom, and 
the air all around, in and out of doors, was fra- 
grant with the aroma of a thousand flowers. 
This lady patient informed me that at one time, 
when her homoeopathic attendant came in, he 



86 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

found her with a common red rose in her hand, 

and said to her, " Mrs. , you must not smell 

of roses, for, if you do, my medicine will not 
have any effect upon you ! "' I told her that the 
homoeopathic practitioner had probably told her 
the truth, once at least; for if his medicines 
were genuine homoeopathic attenuations, they 
would not have any effect upon her, whether she 
did or did not smell of the rose. The brain of 
this man probably retained some glimpses of the 
power of olfaction. 



HOMCEOPATHY. 87 



CHAPTER VI. 

HOMCEOPATHY CONTINUED. TESTIMONY IN FAVOR OP 

HOMOEOPATHY CONSIDERED DIFFERENT KINDS OF 

' WITNESS REQUIRED TO PROVE DIFFERENT MATTERS - — 
WITCHES, ETC. 

I am told that there must be some truth in 
Homoeopathy, or so many intelligent people 
would not patronize it. This is an erroneous 
conclusion. If this were the rule of evidence, 
it would establish as true all the false schemes 
in medicine and religion that have ever been put 
forth. By this rule, Paganism, Mahometanism, 
and Mormonism, would at the same time be 
proved true ; and by this rule Perkinsism, Thom- 
sonism, and Chrono-thermalism, would each be 
established as the best mode of medical practice. 
Each one of these has enjoyed the patronage 
and support of numerous intelligent and respec- 
table individuals. If it is claimed that the 
followers of Samuel Hahnemann are more nu- 
merous than the followers of Samuel Thomson, 



88 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

and therefore Homoeopathy should have the pre- 
ference, I answer that the number of competent 
judges who support the regular system of rational 
medicine, compared with those who support 
Homoeopathy, is at least a thousand to one of 
the latter, and therefore by that rule Homoeo- 
pathy must surely fall. 

It may be well to consider the worth of 
popular testimony. In law and reason, a good 
witness is one who is both able and willing to 
testify correctly. To be competent, the witness 
must understand the subject upon which he is to 
give evidence. If the question to be decided 
regard the purity of a certain piece of metal, 
then the goldsmith, the chemist, or mineralogist, 
is the proper witness. If it regard the genuine- 
ness or value of certain bank notes, another set 
of witnesses will be required — the president 
and cashiers of banks, brokers, and other busi- 
ness men, may be the most competent. If it 
regard mechanics, a different class of witnesses 
will be necessary. But if it is a question of 
law, none of the foregoing witnesses are worth 
anything; they may all be very honest, but not 



HOMCEOPATHY. 89 

being learned in the science of law, they are 
incompetent, and their opinions are worth no- 
thing ; such questions must be settled by lawyers 
and civilians. 

Now Homoeopathy does not gain proselytes 
by teaching its true principles. Such a course 
would be suicidal, and soon exterminate the sect ; 
but it is propagated by other means. It is 
obvious that the public are always desirous for 
something new in every department of science 
and business. They see that all the means 
which have hitherto been employed for the re- 
storation of the sick, often fail ; the healing art 
is acknowledged to be imperfect; the sick bed, 
with all its medical appliances, is a subject of 
dread. Every one would prefer to be treated 
by remedies more agreeable and more sure, and 
Homoeopathy, like every other species of quack- 
ery, promises all this. It points to the improve- 
ments that are continually being made in me- 
chanics, and beguiles the patient with the notion 
that Homoeopathy is a new discovery, which 
compares with regular medicine as the most 
perfect machine does with the rudest ancient 



90 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

model. Such are the considerations which 
induce many intelligent persons to try this kind 
of medical practice. They are assured that the 
medicine is powerful to cure, but always perfectly 
safe, and can never do the least harm. It is 
easy to take, and subjects the patient to no incon- 
venience. If true, it is the kind of medication 
which every one would choose. The patient has 
neither the time nor the means of examining the 
principles of the proposed method; but believing 
it to be something new, he concludes, of course, 
that it must be an improvement upon all former 
methods. Here is where the mistake is made — 
instead of being new, Homoeopathy is at least 
half a century old ; and instead of being an 
improvement known only to homoeopathists. the 
whole has long been known, examined, tried and 
rejected by all competent judges throughout the 
world. It is not a system founded upon actual 
discoveries, for its originator never made a 
single new discovery; on the contrary, every 
particle of knowledge which its practitioners 
possess (when they have any at all) has been 
derived wholly from that system of rational 



HOMOEOPATHY. 91 

medicine which they pretend so much to despise. 
Homoeopathy itself is as destitute of all truth 
and of everything that is valuable, as Sahara is 
of herbage. In itself, it is a boundless desert ; 
without a single oasis — having neither flowers, 
nor fruits, nor springs of water, to refresh the 
fainting traveller. 

If it is still insisted that the number and 
respectability of the supporters of Homoeopathy 
are proofs in its favor, we might urge, with much 
more propriety, the truth of Divination, Sorcery 
and Witchcraft. The believers in these delusions 
have been far more numerous, and their attesta- 
tions far more imposing. During the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, all Europe brooded 
over the doctrine of Witchcraft. All ranks and 
conditions of men, from the mitred prelate to 
the humblest cottager, and from the king upon 
the throne to the beggar at his gates, all were 
firm believers in this terrible infatuation. Judi- 
cial tribunals became courts of inquisition, and 
thousands of the innocent and unoffending were 
suspected to be guilty, and put to death. For 
more than two centuries, this monstrous delusion 



92 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

sat like a mighty incubus upon all the civilized 
world ; and more than a hundred thousand per- 
sons fell victims to its rage. The whole amount 
of testimony in support of Homoeopathy, com- 
pared with that which supported Witchcraft, is 
little more than a single grain compared with 
the amount required to reduce it to the thirtieth 
attenuation; and if the present testimony in 
favor of Homoeopathy proves that there is truth 
in it, then Witchcraft was proved by evidence 
more than a million times as strong. This state 
of things had scarcely passed by, when Hahne- 
mann came upon the stage. Germany had been 
the theatre upon which this dreadful infatuation 
had played its direst pranks. In that devoted 
country, thousands perished annually; victims 
bled every day; the sun rose and set in blood, 
and the earth drank it in like water. This blood 
had scarcely dried up — the witchfire Lad scarcely 
gone out — the wailings of the victims still 
echoed among the mountains, when Hahnemann 
was born. The first air he breathed was preg- 
nant with fanaticism, and his first lessons were 
ghost stories. Superstition had filled the lurid 



HOMCEOPATHY. 93 

atmosphere with spirits of witches, ghosts, hob- 
goblins, and devils of a thousand forms, and the 
wildest frenzy took possession of all minds. 
Is it strange that, under such controlling in- 
fluences, Hahnemann should have become a 
visionary maniac ? 



94 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 



CHAPTER VII. 

HOMOEOPATHY CONTINUED. DEVELOPMENT OF POWER BY 

ATTENUATION " SMALL DOSE," BY WILLIAM SHARP, 

M.D., F.R.S., ETC. CONSUMPTION CURED BY DR. NU- 
NEZ WITH THE SIX THOUSANDTH ATTENUATION OF SUL- 
PHUR THE EXACT REMEDY OF HOMOEOPATHY CONSI- 
DERED DANGER OF HOMCEOPATHIST3 WHO DEPART 

FROM THE RULES LAID DOWN BY HAHNEMANN, ETC. 

The homoeopathic theory of the development 
of medicinal power by dilution and trituration, 
is laid down in Hull's Laurie, page 44, and is as 
follows: "We ought to have noticed that each 
medicinal dose contains a great number of atoms 
which are perfectly inactive, in consequence of 
their being shut up in the interior of the mole- 
cules, and not brought into contact with our or- 
gans; it therefore follows that every time we 
by any means whatever, come to divide these 
molecules into smaller corpuscles, and thus aug- 
ment their whole surface, the energy of the dose 
will so increase that the smallest part will be- 



HOMCEOPATHY. 95 

come capable of exercising an influence, if not 
superior, at any rate equal to that of the entire 
dose in its primitive condition/ 7 

According to this theory, each dilution and 
dynamization breaks down or lays open a new 
set of molecules, and allows their smaller corpus- 
cles to escape from their confinement and be- 
come active ; and reasoning abstractly upon the 
endless divisibility of matter, they arrive at the 
conclusion that the power of medicinal sub- 
stances may be endlessly developed by these 
means. Now this absurd notion is contrary to 
all but homceopathic reasoning, is inconsistent 
with all experience and all analogy, and is posi- 
tively contradicted by every day's observation 
in scientific and domestic operations. Every 
one knows that just in proportion as water is 
added to brine, alcohol, vinegar, or any other 
aqueous solution, its power is diminished, and 
that a hogshead of water in which one grain of 
common salt has been dissolved, has no percep- 
tible saline properties ; but if the grain of salt 
is dissolved in a single teaspoonful of water, it 
becomes sensibly strong — whereas ; if the ho- 



96 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

moeopathic theory be true, the water in the 
hogshead would be quite as strong, if not strong- 
er, than that in the teaspoon. If this homoeo- 
pathic theory were true, it might be applied with 
great advantage in domestic economy. If this 
were true, the aroma of the rose would act upon 
us with increasing force as we receded from it. 
If this doctrine were true, odoriferous molecules 
would be amplified and increased in intensity by 
attenuation. But that such is not the case, com- 
mon observation demonstrates. For example, 
musk is one of the most subtle, penetrating, and 
diffusible of odors; and if Homoeopathy were 
true, its power to stimulate the olfactories 
should certainly Continue to the thousandth at- 
tenuation. But what is the fact? William 
Sharp, M.D., F.R.S., a very ardent advocate for 
Homoeopathy, in a little work of his, entitled 
u The small Dose of Homoeopathy/' page 6, says, 
u The sense of smell can detect musk to the fifth 
or sixth dilution. Every thing that we know 
forbids us to conclude that the division of mat- 
ter stops here, but our senses cannot follow it 
further." Here, then, is a complete refutation of 



HOMCEOPATHY. 97 

the homoeopathic theory of dynamic develop- 
ments, by their own showing. The power of 
the article, instead of being increased, is dimi- 
nished at every attenuation, until it is entirely 
lost. 

This is true of every other medicinal sub-, 
stance. And if the power of musk to operate 
upon the olfactories ceases entirely at the fifth or 
sixth attenuation, what shall be thought of the 
one hundredth or one thousandth ? Hahnemann, 
in his last edition of his Organon, recommends 
the universal employment of the thirtieth atten- 
uation, and directs his followers never to em- 
ploy any of the lower potencies, but speaks 
highly of using sometimes the sixtieth, one hun- 
dred and fiftieth, or three hundredth; and Dr. 
Nunez, of Paris, in a paper read before a homoe- 
opathic meeting in that place, reported several 
cases, one of which was consumption, which he 
declared was cured by him, with the six thou- 
sandth dilution of sulphur ! 

Hahnemann, in his Organon, page 192, says, 
"All experience teaches us that scarcely any 
homoeopathic medicine can be prepared in too 
9* 



98 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

minute a dose." And again, page 194, lie says, 
u I must observe in this place, that it is a com- 
mon fault of physicians, , who go from the old 
school of medicine, to the homoeopathic, to 
violate this most important rule. Blinded by 
prejudice, they avoid small doses of medicine 
attenuated to the highest degree, and thus de- 
prive themselves of the great advantages which 
experience has a thousand times proved to re- 
suit from them." So it seems that Hahnemann's 
experience confirmed him more and more in the 
superior efficacy of high attenuations ; and dur- 
ing the last years of his life he became more 
scrupulously devoted to high potencies. Now 
let us compare this doctrine of the immortal 
Hahnemann, as his disciples call him, with the 
declarations of some conspicuous homoeopathic 
leaders. 

About two years ago, a Dr. Preston, Presi- 
dent of the Rhode Island Homoeopathic Society, 
got up a public meeting in Taunton, Ms., to en- 
able him to deliver a famous lecture of his upon 
Homoeopathy. An extract from that lecture, 
published by his friends, reads as follows : u But 



HOMOEOPATHY. 99 

really, the dose has nothing to do with the law 
of cure — it has come to be engrafted upon Ho- 
moeopathy as a matter of expediency. I may 
give an ounce or a pound of a drug, just as 
strictly in accordance with the law of similars, as 
when I prescribe the millionth or decillionth of 
a grain. It is in the selection of the exact 
remedy, and not in the dose, where Homoeopathy 
lies." Again, he says, u The dose has nothing 
to do with the homoeopathic principle." Here, 
then, we see the very essence of Homoeopa- 
thy abjured and set at nought by the highest 
officer of a homoeopathic society, who, we have 
a right to conclude, uttered the sentiments of 
the body over which he presided. If in these 
days of spiritualism, the ghost of old Hahne- 
mann should be permitted to revisit these pale 
glimmerings of the moon, he will have a fearful 
reckoning to make with many such disciples. 

But as Homoeopathy is always everywhere 
grossly absurd in all its tenets and practices, we 
need not be surprised at any inconsistencies or 
contradictions that it may exhibit. Some of its 
practitioners adhere to the high, some to the low 



100 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

potencies ; and others, as I have shown, to no 
potencies at all. 

From a circular, issued not long since, by a 
celebrated homoeopathic apothecary at Brooklyn, 
N. Y., the following extract is taken. 

u Sir : — Permit me to call your attention to a 
subject of great interest to every scientific ho- 
moeopathist. Some twelve years have now pass- 
ed since the first introduction into this country 
of the so-called high potencies. They were 
vouched for at the time by Boexxixghausen, 
even then regarded as authority, in the follow- 
ing words : — 

u l Several practical physicians of the highest 
order have ascertained, by a number of the most 
careful experiments, that the high dynamizations, 
such as 200, 400, 800, so far from being ineffica- 
cious, not only continue to act with sufficient 
power to cure every kind of disease, but that 
the power of the medicines generally, and th_ 
number of their characteristic symptoms, are de- 
veloped in a more perfect manner by these medi- 
cines; and that very often a disease is cured 
with them, which had been attacked in vain with 
the lower potencies of the same remedy. 

" < Convinced of the truth of this most impor- 
tant discovery, I have used these high potencies 
for two years past, and I am so entirely satisfied 
with the results, that during the last year I have 



fiOMCEOPATHY. 101 

scarcely used any other preparation. Since then, 
my practice, which has always been a successful 
one, has become still more so, and those who 
have taken my advice are enthusiastic in their 
approbation of this course.' — [Preface to Boen- 
ninghausen's Pocket Book.] 

" It will be perceived by the following extract 
from a letter written by Dr. C. Dunham, of this 
city, dated l Wildbad, September Qthj 1855/ that 
Dr. Boenninghausen still continues to use these 
high potencies with astonishing success : — 

«<* * * As to the dose, since 1843, Boen- 
ninghausen has given the 200th potency, pre- 
pared after Hahnemann's method. At first he gave 
this occasionally, then more frequently as expe- 
rience gave him confidence, and for the last eight 
years he has given almost no other potency.' * * * 
1 During six weeks I spent the greater part of each 
day in his office, observing every patient, and 
noting every prescription and its effects. It has 
never been my fortune to see good results follow 
any treatment so quickly and so uniformly ; and 
that, too, in diseases the most deeply rooted and 
the least amenable to ordinary treatment.' 

" In another part of the letter, he says : — 

" l His journals contain records of more than 
six hundred cases of epilepsy, of which nearly 
three fourths were cured.' 

u Again he adds : — 

" < Critics say, " these potencies may do in 
chronic diseases, but they will not act in acute 



102 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

ones." This is answered by the brilliant results 
of the practice of the younger Dr. Boenninghau- 
SEN, who graduated with honor about three years 
ago at the University of Berlin, the very shrine 
of Allopathy. Versed in all the learning of the 
old school, this accomplished and able young 
man applied himself diligently, under his father's 
guidance, to the study of Homoeopathy, and es- 
tablished himself a year ago about twenty miles 
from Munster. It was my good fortune to meet 
him and hear from his own lips an account of 
his success. He has given generally the 200th 
potency, treating all sorts of cases, acute and 
chronic, such as usually occur in a general coun- 
try practice. He has had one hundred and forty- 
seven cases of Typhus, which in Westphalia is a 
grave form of typhus cerebralis, much like the 
British ship fever, and very fatal. The average 
duration of these cases was fourteen days. He 
gave only the 200th, and lost of the 147 only owe 
case. He generally repeated the dose once in 
twelve hours. Of Intermittent fever, he has 
treated sixty cases, curing all but two by the 
first dose.' 

" Being desirous to add to my already large 
stock of medicines, a suite of the best European 
preparations, I requested Dr. Dunham to make 
for me the necessary inquiries, and in due time 
received from him a letter, from which the fol- 
lowing is an extract : — 

" l Bearing in mind your request to that effect, 



1 



HOMCEOPATHY. 103 

I have made inquiries in France and Germany 
respecting the Homoeopathic pharmaceutists, and 
as to how far one may rely on their preparations. 
I am led to believe that a pharmaceutist named 
Lehrmann, who lives in Schoningen, in the 
Grand Duchy of Brunswick, is altogether the 
most reliable. He makes his preparations un- 
der the supervision of Dr. von Boenninghausen, 
who will answer for their excellence.' 

41 1 immediately opened a correspondence with 
Mr. Lehrmann, and have received from him a 
full suite of the same medicines which he sup- 
plies to Boenninghausen. These are now offer- 
ed to the Homoeopathic Physicians of the United 
States, at rates so low, that it is only by an ex- 
tensive sale of them that I can ever hope to be 
remunerated for the great cost of importation. 

u A complete suite of two hundred and four- 
teen remedies, as per Catalogue on next page, 
put up in a neat mahogany case, with lock and 
key, will be carefully packed and delivered to 
the care of any merchant in the city of New 
York, or at any of the Express offices, as fol- 
lows :" — [Here follow the prices, and a list of 
the medicines, all of the 200th potency.] 

So it appears that this indefatigable pharma- 
ceutist has imported from Germany two hundred 
and fourteen medicines (as he calls them), all of 



104 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

them being of the two hundredth attenuation; 
and it must be gratifying to the friends of hu- 
manity to know that common salt, charcoal, chalk, 
and silex, have not been omitted, and that through 
the herculean efforts of this homoeopathic savan 
the apis mellifica has been obtained, and also 
a sufficient quantity of well attenuated vaccinin, 
all very nicely put up in half-drachm vials, in ma- 
hogany cases, with lock and key. 

Now I wish to submit one or two questions to 
mathematicians, viz. : Suppose that only one of 
the above articles was brought in the same ves- 
sel, and that a ship of the capacity of a thousand 
tons was entirely laden with the two hundredth 
attenuation of zinc, what amount of that article 
was brought in the ship ? How many such ships 
would it require to bring a single grain of zinc 
so attenuated ? I shall not attempt to exhibit 
the calculation upon paper, because no volume 
of five hundred pages would afford room for the 
statement in figures. I shall therefore content 
myself by saying that one grain of zinc or other 
article, carried only to the 20th attenuation with 
sugar, would form a mass equal to six hundred 



HOMCEOPATHY. 105 

and ten billions of globes of the size of our 
earth. And wonderful as this may appear, if 
any one should attempt to compute the whole 
amount of a single grain attenuated to the 
200th potency, and the surface of the whole 
earth was one entire blackboard, there would 
not be room enough upon it for the figures to 
state the infinite amount; and yet Dr. Boenning- 
hausen has had astonishing success with the 
800th attenuation, and Dr. Nunez declares that he 
actually cured consumption with the 6000th at- 
tenuation of sulphur ! The sting of a single 
honey-bee, called apis mellifica, so attenuated, 
would form material enough to medicate all the 
human race that might live on this planet for a 
thousand million of years, and then there would 
be enough left to form a thousand planets larger 
than Jupiter. 

Now if the articles thus advertised by this 
Brooklyn homoeopathist are what he declares 
them to be, and what the celebrated Boenning- 
hausen certifies that they are, and if equal parts 
of sugar and starch have been employed in their 
preparation, as is now recommended, then if all 
10 



106 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

he has, of all sorts, was thrown into a common 
receiver, it would not only make excellent pro- 
vender for hogs, but dyspeptics and delicate chil- 
dren might with perfect safety be allowed to live 
exclusively upon it, and would probably fatten 
by its use. As to the poison — a single biscuit 
which forms a part of our daily food contains 
more than all the articles this man has ever had, 
or can have, that are so attenuated. 

From what has been said, some might be led 
to suppose that even the 30th attenuation could 
never be obtained ; and it certainly could not, if 
the whole quantity used at each attenuation was 
preserved and carried forward to the end of the 
process. A moment's consideration will make 
this evident. At first, one grain of the article, 
if it is a powder, is to be dynamized, or rubbed 
in a porcelain mortar with one hundred grains 
of sugar. This is the first attenuation. Then 
if it is intended to preserve the whole and carry 
it through to the end, this hundred grains must 
be mixed and dynamized with one hundred times 
as much, which would be ten thousand grains, or 
about ten pounds in weight ; and this would be 



i 



HOMCEOPATHY. 107 

the second attenuation. In order to make the 
third, all this ten pounds must be mixed and dy- 
namized as before, with one hundred times that 
quantity, which would be one thousand pounds ; 
and if we attempt to make the fourth attenuation 
from this, it would require no less than a hun- 
dred thousand pounds of sugar. So that it be- 
comes evident that we cannot proceed in this 
way. But the high potencies may nevertheless 
be obtained in the following manner. After the 
first hundred grains have been sufficiently dy- 
namized, one single grain is to be taken from 
this mass, and added to the second one hundred 
grains, and the whole dynamized as before ; and 
one grain is to be taken from this, to make the 
third; and so on — so that ninety-nine grains of 
every attenuation is thrown away, and only a sin- 
gle grain is carried forward into the last attenu- 
ation, which, let it be the thirtieth or thousandth, 
consists only of one hundred grains. 

Now let us reflect a moment upon this process, 
conducted strictly according to the rules laid 
down by Hahnemann. He orders a porcelain 
mortar to be used, and that each trituration shall 



108 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

be continued six minutes, and that four minutes 
more shall be occupied in scraping the mortar 
after each attenuation. Ten minutes would 
therefore be required for each attenuation. How 
long would it take, at this rate, to obtain the six 
thousandth attenuation, provided the pharmaceu- 
tist worked ten hours every day ? 

6 in an hour. 
60 in a day. 
6000 in 600 days. 

This would certainly be a dear medicine — a 
precious morsel indeed ! But, although Hahne- 
mann supposed that he had carried all the minutiae 
of his system to full perfection, we find that his 
ingenious disciples have instituted a great num- 
ber of changes, which they call improvements. 
The porcelain mortar is now set aside, or only 
used for low potencies, and the sugar, and starch, 
with the silex, lachesis, vaccinin, or whatever is 
required, are ground together in a mill by steam 
power, and with about as much care as feed is 
ground for horses. 

But we are told the essence of Homoeopathy 
consists in the selection of the exact remedy, and 



HOMCEOPATHY. 109 

that in obedience to their law of similars, they 
cure diseases by using such articles as would 
produce the like symptoms if given to healthy 
persons ; and that the preparations which they 
employ to cure the sick, would actually produce 
the same ; or similar, effects in healthy persons, 
they aver has been abundantly proved by the 
experiments of Hahnemann and his followers. 
Let us see how this is. A man has inflammatory 
rheumatism — his homoeopathic doctor gives him 
forty pellets of the thirtieth attenuation of aco- 
nite, and directs him to take two at a time twice 
a day, which would last ten days. His child gets 
them, and finding they are sweet, swallows them 
all at a dose. Now if there were any truth in 
Homoeopathy, this child must have rheumatism, 
or a similar affection, severely, so that there 
would in that event be two cases of rheumatism 
instead of one in the same family. But the pel- 
lets are found to have no effect at all upon the 
child, thus proving the falsity of their doctrines 
and the inefficiency of their medicines at the 
same time. Instances of this kind are almost of 
daily occurrence in homoeopathic practice; but 
10* 



110 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

when a case of the kind happens, and the mother 
of the child is greatly alarmed; the doctor quiets 
her fears by telling her that the medicine would 
have no effect upon a well child. This is true, 
and the only truth that Homoeopathy was ever 
known to utter. 

As we have said before, there is never any 
possible danger from any genuine homoeopathic 
preparation in any quantity; but as the most 
virulent poisons may be, and sometimes are, dis- 
guised in that way, there is sometimes great dan- 
ger from such apparently harmless doses when 
it is least suspected. Many instances have oc- 
curred in which dishonest practitioners have used 
globules, and powders, impregnated with power- 
ful poisons. Death has repeatedly followed the 
use of such poisonous doses, both in Europe and 
this country. Not long ago, Count St. Antonio 
fell a victim to this fraud in London. Having 
occasion to take homoeopathic globules at inter- 
vals for some slight ailment, in order to save 
trouble he took three doses at once, and died in 
two hours afterwards. The remaining globules 
being examined by a toxicologist, were found to 



HOMGEOPATHY. Ill 

be highly charged with strychnine, which was the 
undoubted cause of his death. Half a grain of 
this article has been known to produce almost 
instant death. We might cite several instances 
nearer home, in which death has been occasioned 
by pretended homoeopathic preparations. The 
truth is, every man who knows what genuine 
Homoeopathy is, and has a single grain of com- 
mon sense left, knows that that practice is an 
absolute nullity, and he must either content him- 
self with doing nothing at all, or resort to such 
a clandestine and reprehensible method. Dr. 
Simpson thus alludes to this matter : 

" The author of the l Confessions of an Homoe- 
opathist/ in referring to the due and adequate 
drugging of the Hahnemannic doses, amusingly 
remarks: — i Patients who are skeptical of the 
truths of Homoeopathy, from a love of variety, or 
a hundred other reasons, will consult you. As 
these persons are inclined to ridicule infinitesi- 
mal doses, it is sometimes highly useful to give 
them powerful doses of various highly concen- 
trated medicines, in globules similar in appear- 
ance to all the rest, but consisting of morphia, 
strychnine, arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and such 
like : a few of these mingled with your sugar and 



112 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

starch globules, will cause effects to be felt by 
the skeptic, which will quickly overcome his dis- 
belief: he generally makes an excellent patient, 
and often a good decoy-duck. Never scruple in 
paralytic cases to give strychnine largely, but 
never allow it to be supposed that you are giv- 
ing more at a dose than the one-hundred-thou- 
sandth of a grain. This rule may be followed 
in other complaints with other very active drugs, 
such as croton oil ; but this is one of our pro- 
foundest secrets, and must be kept so. Were it 
known, our wonder-working powers would be 
reduced in the estimation of the public and the 
regulars.' " 

As we have said before, the principles laid 
down by Hahnemann and imperiously enjoined 
upon his followers, are not at all regarded by a 
large portion of the homoeopathic practitioners 
of the present time. If they claim that they 
have improved upon his system, the claim is 
false; instead of improving upon his scheme, they 
repudiate, one by one, every principle which he 
laid down, and have found it expedient to resort 
to various subterfuges, in order to save the en- 
tire homoeopathic fraternity from immediate and 
utter extinction. A very few may endeavor to 



HOMOEOPATHY. 113 

conform their practice strictly to homoeopathic 
rules, but a much larger class are such as Hah- 
nemann denounced as mongrels, who sometimes 
employ infinitesimals, and sometimes dangerous 
doses of the most powerful poisons ; and in this 
respect each individual practitioner follows the 
dictates of his own fancy, without any true prin- 
ciples or knowledge for his guide — because the 
study of Homoeopathy will no more qualify a 
man for the practice of rational medicine, than 
the study of necromancy will qualify one for 
practical navigation. But whatever is done in 
the name and under the cloak of Homoeopathy, 
is allowed by its advocates to be right. 

We have seen that Hahnemann positively for- 
bids the employment of more than one article at 
or near the same time, in the same disease, and 
that that single medicine should not be repeated 
oftener than once in six, eight, twelve, or twenty- 
four hours, and sometimes only once in three, 
six, or eight days. Now let us see how these 
positive rules compare with the homoeopathic 
practice of the present time. If you look into a 
sick room now under such management, you will 



114 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

see two or three kinds of powders, or perhaps, 
more frequently, two glass tumblers, each appa- 
rently about half full of water. These tumblers, 
the homoeopathist tells you, contain two kinds of 
medicine, to be given to the patient alternately, 
every half hour, or perhaps once in one, two, or 
three hours. If Hahnemann in his lifetime had 
been made acquainted with such gross violations 
of his most positive directions, he would have 
entirely disowned all such disciples, and pro- 
nounced his severest anathemas upon them. At 
the present time, one who is nominally a homoe- 
opathist gives emetics, another cathartics, ano- 
ther bleeds, another uses counter-irritants ; and 
thus by degrees these practitioners are stepping 
into the domain of what they call, by way of re- 
proach, Allopathy. This change may perhaps 
slightly contribute to prolong the existence of 
Homoeopathy, but it is very unfortunate for those 
who patronize that class of practitioners. When 
homoeopathists dealt exclusively in sugar mites, 
and high attenuations, their practice was nuga- 
tory and harmless; but when they resort to the 
use of the most powerful drugs concealed un 



HOMCEOPATHY. 115 

the cloak of Homoeopathy, they become danger- 
ous men. 

Soon after the death of Hahnemann, his friends 
erected a statue to his memory at Leipsic, his 
native place. This was done in order to glorify 
themselves, and shed a lustre upon Homoeopathy; 
but the pretended veneration for Hahnemann is 
entirely hollow and hypocritical, since they set 
at naught and practically deny all his principles. 
So we see that the disciples of Hahnemann, 
like the followers of Mahomet, have consecrated 
their Mecca, and deified their Prophet. But 
whilst the Mahometans are in all respects faith- 
ful to the principles and teachings of their great 
master, homoeopathists are false to every princi- 
ple laid down by Hahnemannn. Nothing but the 
empty name is preserved, and this is used to 
cover ignorance and fraud, 



116 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOMOEOPATHY CONTINUED. AMULETS ROYAL TOUCH 

PERKINSI3M MEDICAL EXPERIENCE OFTEN UNRELIABLE 

HOMOEOPATHIC CURES ILLUSORY, ETC. ETC. 

It is one of the hardest things in the world to 
persuade a man to disbelieve or even to question 
his own senses. We necessarily form opinions 
of men and things from our own observations, 
and in many instances without any other guide ; 
and from a few brief observations imperfectly 
taken, men often form opinions in direct oppo- 
sition to established principles of rational phi- 
losophy. A little reflection will show how ex- 
tremely liable men are to be led astray by such 
means. Because, among the ancient Greeks and 
Romans, a few individuals who wore upon their 
persons certain shells or pieces of metal, or some 
peculiar device, escaped death in battle or con- 
tagion in the camp, the beholders were led to 
suppose that these things, by their talismanic in- 
fluence, protected the wearers. This led to the 



HOMOEOPATHY. 117 

use of amulets ; and notwithstanding the absurd- 
ity and irrationality of the idea, and its constant 
refutation by every day's observation, the masses 
embraced it with implicit confidence, and clung 
to it for centuries. In later times, the hand of 
an English king graciously applied to a person 
afflicted with scrofula, gout, rheumatism, or other 
chronic affection, came to be regarded as a sove- 
reign remedy for numerous disorders. Less 
than two centuries ago the Royal Touch was re- 
garded as nearly infallible throughout all Europe. 
Charles II. is said to have applied his hand in 
that way to about one hundred thousand patients, 
a great majority of whom recovered. Less than 
a century ago, even within the memory of many 
still living, the famous Dr. Perkins cured diseases 
in nearly the same way, by means of his metallic 
points. Near the close of the last century he 
introduced his great discovery into Great Brit- 
ain. His first patients were among the higher 
classes, and his success was so rapid that in a 
short time a great portion of the English nobility 
were cured, or imagined themselves cured, of 
numerous grave disorders, by the use of these 
11 



118 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

little pieces of metal. A Perkinsian society wag 
formed in London, composed chiefly of the higher 
orders. Princes of the royal blood, ministers 
of state, chancellors, bishops, and other dignita- 
ries, learned professors and wealthy laymen, all 
united in one grand jubilee. This association 
had frequent public dinners, and held an annual 
celebration in honor of this great discovery, 
which seemed to be almost capable of reversing 
the decree of the Almighty, and rendering man 
immortal. In view of this, all other medical 
means were regarded as worthless; and for a 
time, rational medicine seemed almost to have 
come to a final end. Committees were chosen, 
who published, from time to time, reports of the 
unparalleled success of this new mode of treat- 
ment. More than five thousand cures were pub- 
licly certified to have been made in England in a 
short space of time. Diseases of all kinds, fe- 
vers, inflammations, consumptions, and broken 
bones, readily yielded to this new method, and 
were cured. And how was this multitude of mi- 
raculous cures effected ? Simply by the use of 
two small pieces of metal, one of iron, the other 



H0MCE0PATHY. 119 

of brass, about three inches in length, and point- 
ed at one end. One of these was held in each 
hand of the operator, and the points being placed 
in contact, were gently drawn over the part of 
the body in which the pain was felt or the dis- 
ease was supposed to be seated. By these means, 
if we may believe thousands of witnesses of the 
highest respectability, immediate and permanent 
•relief was always effected in all curable cases. 
At length some individuals, who had more faith 
in the power of the imagination than in the effi- 
cacy of the tractors, procured painted wooden 
points, which so nicely resembled the metallic as 
to pass for the genuine, and it was found, upon 
trial, that these painted sticks effected cures 
quite as readily as the genuine metallic tractors. 
When these facts came to be generally known, 
it was found that even the genuine points ceased 
to cure. The charm was dissolved — the talis- 
man fled — reason returned, and Perkinsism came 
to a speedy and final end. 

The history of Perkinsism may serve as a key 
to Homoeopathy and many other delusions. Both 
the history of the past and the experience of the 



120 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

present time show that mankind are extremely- 
liable to be mistaken in regard to cures. Under 
every system and mode of practice, too much, 
credit has often been given to medical means. 
A brief consideration of some well known prin- 
ciples of physiology will serve to explain the 
mystery of numerous (so called) wonderful cures. 
Every one ought to know that in all diseases, 
even the most fatal, there is a tendency towards 
recovery. Every living animal body is furnished 
with organs designed to supply its waste and re- 
pair its injuries, and to maintain the whole sys- 
tem in a state of health. The ancients called 
this "The Vis Medicatrix Natures" and we con- 
sider it as a recuperative principle indispensable 
to animal life. When anything interferes with 
the economy of health, this power is immediately 
exerted to remove or overcome the disturbing- 
cause, or to obviate its injurious effects, and in a 
very large portion of diseases this power is suf- 
ficient of itself, without assistance, to overcome 
the derangement, remove the disorder, and in 
due time to restore the system to its usual state 
of health. Many diseases are limited in their 



HOMCEOPATHY. 121 

duration^ and pass off in about a given period, 
and great numbers of nervous diseases are al- 
most wholly under the influence of the mind. It 
is probable that nine-tenths of all cases of indis- 
position would result in recovery, if they were 
in no way interfered with. When the sick man, 
after making use of some supposed medicinal 
agent, is relieved and gets well, he is inclined to 
ascribe his recovery to the medicine. The con- 
clusion may or may not be correct. Every re- 
covery is the legitimate operation of the sanative 
powers of the organism, either with or without 
the aid of medicine ; and as a large portion of 
diseases at length spontaneously pass off, we 
ought to be extremely cautious in ascribing re- 
coveries to medicines employed; and when the 
supposed remedies are inert or of doubtful utili- 
ty, the idea should be rejected altogether. 

If we attempt to reason with the advocates of 
any kind of quackery, and endeavor to show them 
the absurdities of their positions, they will often 
tell us that they care nothing for theory so long 
as the practice is successful. So said the de- 
luded votaries of Perkins, and so say the advo- 
11* 



122 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

cates of every kind of empiricism. Against such 
men, arguments are useless. They are deaf to 
all appeals to reason, and we are overwhelmed 
as with an avalanche by their recitals of what 
they have themselves seen; common sense is put 
in abeyance, and truth is confounded by the won- 
derful cures to which they have been witnesses. 
Xo unprofessional man, merely from his own 
observations, can become qualified to judge of 
the merits of different modes of medical prac- 
tice ; his knowledge of the subject is too limited, 
and his observations are too brief and imperfect, 
to fit him for the task. He may have seen one 
or several patients recover under some particular 
treatment, and also others die under other treat- 
ment; but from such limited observations, with- 
out a correct knowledge of the pathological con- 
dition of each patient and all the circumstances 
attending it, he is not warranted in sitting 
in judgment upon a matter of so much im- 
portance. But it is sometimes said that u fools 
rush in where angels fear to tread," and we know 
that it is no uncommon thing for men and women, 
and sometimes children, in almost every grade of 



HOMCEOPATHY. 123 

society, to make a very liberal use of the free- 
dom of opinion in these matters, and the judg- 
ment of some sage matron is often boldly put in 
opposition to that of a host of men of learning 
and experience, and some very incompetent indi- 
vidual often takes it upon himself to give a flat 
denial to the highest medical authority. If we 
enter the workshop of the rudest mechanic, he 
gives us to understand that that is his peculiar 
province ; he prides himself upon the possession 
of the knowledge and skill which belong exclu- 
sively to his kind of business, and he tacitly asks 
to be respected in his own vocation. All this is 
right. But when he enters our province, and 
sets up his brief and illusory experience in oppo- 
sition to all medical knowledge and all true ex- 
perience, neither he nor his experience deserve 
to be respected. If the nobility of England had 
left medicine where it belonged, in the hands of 
the legitimate profession, and confined their at- 
tention to their own proper duties, instead of 
undertaking to reform the medical world by 
means of Perkins's metallic points, they would 
not have become the silly dupes of that shallow 
delusion. 



124 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

Some suppose that medical theories are of lit- 
tle or no consequence, and that a man may be a 
good practitioner with a false theory, or no the- 
ory at all. This is a great mistake. Every one 
must have some sort of theory ; it may be faint 
and imperfect, but it is, nevertheless, the guide 
of his conduct. Therefore it is wrong to suppose 
that two systems, founded upon opposite theo- 
ries, are alike in practice. If one man sows 
wheat and another thistles, they cannot expect 
similar crops ; so if one gives his patient the de- 
cillionth of a grain of oyster shell, and another 
gives his a dose of ipecac, they cannot expect 
similar results. Homoeopathic theories are so 
absurd, that all sagacious practitioners take spe- 
cial care to keep them as much as possible out 
of sight. All that they wish the public to know 
is 7 that their scheme is a new and wonderful dis- 
covery made by the immortal Hahnemann ; that 
it is the shortest, easiest, and surest road to 
health, and that it wholly discards all that per- 
tains to the old and all but defunct system, and 
they assure us that the success of their mode of 
treatment is without a parallel. But we learn 



HOMOEOPATHY. 125 

from history that Homoeopathy, with all its 
boastings, has had but meagre success compared 
with many other delusions. Hahnemann denied 
the existence of a recuperative power in the ani- 
mal organism, and held that every recovery un- 
der his plan of treatment was due alone to the 
medicine. Whilst unassisted nature did the cure, 
Hahnemann ascribed it to his futile attenuations. 

There are various circumstances attending ho- 
moeopathic practice, which tend to increase the 
number of apparent cures under that treatment. 
Many persons, having some slight real or imagi- 
nary indisposition, are just sick enough to take 
sugar pellets or powders, but not sick enough to 
require an ordinary dose of medicine of any kind ; 
and when they have amused themselves suffi- 
ciently with homoeopathic placeboes, they are 
cured. Some, out of curiosity, are induced to 
try the sugar doses, being assured that they are 
pleasant to take and always perfectly safe. Let 
the patient imagine himself sick, and again ima- 
gine himself well, and the cure is wrought. 

There are many females, who, if we may be- 
lieve them, are kept alive from day to day by the 



126 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

constant use of homoeopathic attenuations. Thi3 
class of patients are continually being cured 7 but 
are never able to dispense with the use of sugar 
mites. 



HOMCEOPATHY. 127 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOMCEOPATHY CONTINUED. NO UNIFORMITY IN HOMEO- 
PATHIC PRACTICE LIBRARIES INFLUENCE OF HO- 
MCEOPATHY UPON MEDICAL PRACTICE. 

The homoeopathic axiom, similia similibus 
curantur, never was, and never could be acted 
upon to any extent, because there are no articles 
employed as medicines which really produce ef- 
fects similar to any diseases, except such dis- 
eases as they themselves produce ; nor do ho- 
moeopathic practitioners attempt to comply with 
this absurd aphorism. Practically it would be 
like attempting to quench fire with turpentine, 
or allay the thirst of a Dives with burning sand. 
But it is apparent that there is now no uniform- 
ity in the homoeopathic practice — every man of 
that class does just what he thinks proper, so 
long as he does it all under the cloak of Homoe- 
opathy. If we turn our attention to this class 
of practitioners, we shall find that a portion of 
them have once been regularly educated, and have 



128 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

practised rational medicine for a time, but be- 
lieving Homoeopathy to be a great pecuniary 
improvement, have adopted it. Some of these 
men have respectable medical libraries, without 
which no one can be a safe practitioner ; and 
should they ever shake off the dream of Homoe- 
opathy, might again become useful physicians. 

But there is another class who know nothing 
but Homoeopathy, and have had no opportunities 
for learning anything else. These are the genu- 
ine Simon Pures — their minds are as destitute 
of correct medical knowledge as their doses of 
sugar are of medicinal power. If you look 
into the office of one of this class, you will be- 
hold a gorgeous pyramid glistening with tiny vi- 
als, all apparently filled with potent attenuations. 
Dazzled by the glowing galaxy, you might be 
ready to conclude that the proprietor of all this 
must possess immense knowledge and skill. But 
we will not stop now to examine the contents of 
this medical arsenal, but pass on to examine the 
library — and what shall we find there ? In 
some instances one or two manuals of homoeo- 
pathic practice will comprise the whole. But if 



HOMOEOPATHY. 129 

the incumbent has a full library, we may see upon 
his shelf Hahnemann's Organon, his Lesser Writ- 
ings, Jahr's Manual, and perhaps the works of 
Laurie, Hull, Hering,Possart, Pulte, Teste, Emma 
Cote, and perhaps others of the same sort. Now 
a good medical library is as indispensable for a 
physician, as a law library is for an attorney ; 
they are absolutely necessary in both cases. But 
for any practical purpose, a physician might just 
as well have his desk furnished with such works 
as Roderick Random, Don Quixotte, Tales of 
Arabian Knights, Gil Bias, and Gulliver's Tra- 
vels, as such works as we have noticed. Men of 
education and talents must, from the bottom of 
their hearts, loathe such nebulous bundles of at- 
tenuated nonsense, and in their practice they 
must often, almost unconsciously, leap over the 
narrow bounds of Homoeopathy, and unless pe- 
cuniary considerations bind them too strongly to 
the harness, they will ere long commit its useless 
trappings to the winds, and stand aloof from the 
crazy car which a breath of reason must blow to 
atoms. 

It is a common proverb, that one extreme of- 
12 



130 QUACKERY UNMASKED: 

ten follows another. It is sometimes so in medi- 
cine. As soon as physicians had let go the 
absurd idea that diseases were the work of de- 
mons, had given up their useless mysticisms, and 
begun to look upon disease as the effect of natu- 
ral causes — when Anatomy, Physiology and Pa- 
thology had helped to explain morbid phenomena, 
and rational means had come to be employed, 
practitioners commenced a course of active treat- 
ment and went to work with all their might to 
cure all diseases by positive medication. The 
sick were taught in all cases to resort immedi- 
ately to medical means, and the ability of phy- 
sicians to control diseases was much exaggerated. 
Medicinal substances were supposed to possess 
curative properties which never belonged to 
them, and excessive drugging was the conse- 
quence. Regardless of the recuperative powers 
of the animal organism, the public demanded of 
physicians to be cured of all bodily ills by active 
measures ; and striving to fulfil such expectations 
and requirements, practitioners were almost 
irresistibly driven to adopt the most efficient 
means. All diseases in all stages were submit- 



HOHCEOPATHY. 131 

ted to active treatment, and physicians often 
gloried in their heroic exploits, whilst abused 
nature shook, and faltered, under the severity of 
their measures. Diseases which have been found 
to be self-limited in their course and duration, 
as well as those of a different character, were 
indiscriminately attacked in the same ruthless 
manner, and serious mischief often followed as 
the consequence. This was the state of things 
when Hahnemann came upon the stage. Heroic 
medication had arrived at its culminating point. 
Perhaps Hahnemann looked upon this state of 
things with disgust, and this may have been the 
cause of that hostility which he ever afterwards 
manifested towards the regular profession. How- 
ever this may be, he made no attempt, by any 
rational means, to reform existing abuses, but 
instead of endeavoring by such means as common 
sense would suggest to correct the most obvious 
abuses, and at the same time to preserve every 
useful measure, and every important truth, he 
cast the whole aside at a single dash, and set up 
in its stead a scheme of practice quite as irra- 
tional, and quite as useless, as that which had 



132 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

obtained in the dark ages two thousand years 
before. 

And yet, after all, perhaps Hahnemann did 
not live wholly in vain. Although not actually 
a messenger from Heaven in the light by which 
he was sometimes regarded by his disciples, he 
seems nevertheless to have had an important 
mission indirectly to accomplish. Through the 
use of his empty and inert means, we have been 
enabled to see what the innate powers of the ani- 
mal organization can accomplish without medi- 
cal interference. We have been taught to rely 
more upon these, and less upon art, and have 
seen the wonderful influence which the mind has 
over the bodily functions. Although Hahnemann 
made no direct improvements in medicine — al- 
though he made no reliable discoveries, and es- 
tablished no sound principles — although his 
whole scheme, with all its details, is frail as a 
spider's web, and must fall to atoms and be 
blown away by the wind — yet indirectly it may 
tend to enforce important truths. Henceforth 
the physician will look more carefully to the re- 
cuperative energies of nature, and from the dark- 



*f^ 



HOMCEOPATHY. 133 

ness and confusion which Hahnemann spread 
around, a clearer light may shine upon the path 
of medical practice. Henceforth the physician 
will lay a gentler hand upon his patient, and pur- 
sue a more expectant course. The public may 
not require physicians less, but will demand less 
of them in the way of positive medication. Hah- 
nemann came, not as he and his followers sup- 
posed, to lay the foundation of a new and dura- 
ble system of medicine, nor to prostrate and 
crush the old, and hurl into oblivion the fruits of 
all past experience — not to gain anything for 
himself or his followers — but, unwittingly and 
unwillingly, to labor through a long life in aid of 
that very system that he wished to overthrow 
and demolish. And when every vestige of Hah- 
nemannism shall have passed away " as the base- 
less fabric of a vision," and his name shall be 
coupled with that of Paracelsus — when the Or- 
ganon shall have no more authority than Arabian 
Tales — even then, mankind may be indirectly 
benefited by this ineffable delusion. 
12* 



134 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER X, 



HOMEOPATHIC THEOLOGY. 



If any one were asked to point out the great- 
est or the least of the absurdities of Homoeopa- 
thy, he would be unable to do either — if its 
theological speculations are not the greatest, it 
is difficult to believe them to be the least. This 
part of the scheme is not probably so generally 
understood in the United States as in Great 
Britain, as no direct pecuniary value is attached 
to it in this country. It is nevertheless no tri- 
fling part of the whole plan, although it might be 
hardly safe to lay it before the public without 
ample documentary evidence to sustain it. 

Hahnemann and his early associates, besides 
aiming to overthrow everything that was true in 
medicine, sought also to connect Homoeopathy 
with Theology. After twelve years of laborious 
investigation, Hahnemann informs us that he 
made the important discovery that the greatest 



HOMOEOPATHY. 135 

portion of all the ills that flesh is heir to, arises 
from one single affection, and that also all actual 
sin and positive delinquencies are produced sole- 
ly by that same bodily disease, and that disease 
is nothing more nor less than Psora, or the com- 
mon Itch. In his Organon, page 183, he says, 
" This thousand-headed monster of disease does, 
after the completion of the internal infection of 
the whole organism, announce by a peculiar cu- 
taneous eruption, sometimes consisting only of 
a few vesicles accompanied by an intolerable vo- 
luptuous tickling, itching, and a peculiar odor, 
the monstrous internal chronic miasm — the 
Psora — the only fundamental cause and pro- 
ducer of all the other numerous, I may say, innu- 
merable, forms of disease, which under the names 
of nervous debility, hysteria, hypochondriasis, 
mania, melancholia, imbecility, madness, epilep- 
sy, convulsions of all sorts, softening of the bones, 
rachitis, scholiosis and lyphosis, caries, cancer, 
fungus haematodes, malignant organic growths, 
gout, haemorrhoids, jaundice, cyanosis, dropsy, 
amenorrhoea, haemorrhage from the stomach, nose, 
lungs, bladder, and womb, of asthma and ulcera- 
tion of the lungs, of impotence and barrenness, 



136 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

of megrim, deafness, cataract, amaurosis, urinary 
calculus, paralysis, defects of the senses, and 
pains of thousands of kinds which figure in sys- 
tematic works on pathology, as peculiar inde- 
pendent diseases. " 

At a homoeopathic school which was estab- 
lished for a time at Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, of 
which a Dr. Mure was president, every candidate 
for graduation was required to make confession 
of his faith in Homoeopathy, and then to take a 
most solemn oath to abide by the principles 
taught by Hahnemann. The oath concludes as 
follows : " And this I swear in the name of the 
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Af- 
ter this, the president addressed the graduates 
in the following words : u In the name of Hahne- 
mann, discoverer of Homoeopathy, from whom I 
have received the mission, and the power, and 
with the assistance of my coadjutors the disci- 
ples of that messenger from Heaven, I now de- 
clare you fit to exercise the new art, acknow- 
ledge you as my colleagues, and as professors of 
pure Homoeopathy. 7 ' [See British Journal of 
Homoeopathy for 1849, page 537.] 

By this highly imposing ceremony, that insti- 



HOMCEOPATHY. 137 

tution solemnly declared Hahnemann to be a 
" messenger from Heaven." The same doctrine 
has been taught by other of his disciples both in 
this country and in Europe. He is spoken of as 
"the new Evangelist/' "the most inspired of 
discoverers.'' A writer in an English journal, 
called the "Family Herald," for November, 1850, 
says — " Religion itself has undergone a spirit- 
ual revolution since the date of Hahnemann's 
discovery." 

A few years ago a clergyman of the church of 
England, the Rev. Thomas R. Everest, Rector of 
Wickwar, in Gloucestershire, preached a sermon 
in aid of a homoeopathic hospital. This sermon, 
as might be expected, was replete with homoeo- 
pathic theology as well as medicine. This re- 
verend divine declared that the Itch, as Hahne- 
mann had discovered, was a moral, as well as a 
physical malady. He finds it so represented in 
Scripture, and argues that the solemn command 
of Christ to his disciples, to a cleanse the le- 
pers," (Matt. x. 8), was actually a command to 
cure the Itch. 

" The taint (says he) is, as Scripture has hint- 



138 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

ed, and investigation has within these few years 
shown, the parent of all these chronic tendencies, 
these cachexias, these scrofulas, these atrophies, 
this sterility, this atony, this gout, this rheuma- 
tism, this phthisis, this hereditary insanity with 
all its hydra heads and multiform shapes and 
shades, dark passions, furious lusts, stubborn ob- 
stinacies, scowling tempers, suicidal manias, 
gloomy revenges, gnawing jealousies, fretfulness, 
ill-humor; in short, all the various aberrations 
of mind, and reluctance to bear patiently the 
burdens which the Lord lays on man. All these 
chronic tendencies to disorder do combine and 
interlace with the natural corruption, the taint 
derived from Adam; and who, save God alone, 
shall say where one begins, and the other ends ? 
The tendency to disorder of the functions aggra- 
vates the tendency to sin. The chronic taint in 
the constitution increases the chronic proneness 
to sin which Adam left us. The physical lepro- 
sy of the flesh unites with the moral leprosy of 
the soul. It is this combination of the two, aid- 
ed often by stimuli, and almost always by large 
doses of violent inappropriate medicines antece- 
dently given (medicines which a child may put 
into the constitution, but which ten men could 
not get out of it again), which festers in your 
jails, rots in your hulks, seethes in your lanes 



HOMOEOPATHY. 139 

and alleys, and bubbles up in crime, madness, and 
eccentricity all over your land. This it is which 
makes your atheist on the one hand, your bigot 
on the other. This it is which feeds the flame 
of folly everywhere all over the earth, placed Si- 
mon on his pillar, sent the world on crusades, 
lights the Suttee : — nay, why travel eastward! 
which here, in this our own land, gave disciples 
to Johanna Southcote, creates Mormons, — peo- 
ples Agapemone, begets holy jackets and bleed- 
ing pictures, — and confounds God's reasonable 
heritage with crime — guilt — lust — passion — 
disease — distress — lunacy — folly — idoey." — 
P. 39 of Mr. Everest's Sermon. 

Mr. Everest proceeds to say, " Irreligion is the 
daughter of internal disorder, but the old system 
of medicine was of no use or value as an aid to 
conversions." "The homoeopathic treatment," 
he says, "will eradicate that prime cause of ir- 
religion, and then the holy and saving truths of 
the Gospel will be admitted into the heart, and 
never fail to influence the life." He appeals to 
the " fathers and mothers," " the religious body 
of this land [England], and the governors of 
God's heritage, monarchs, parliaments, and ma- 



140 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

gistrates," to enforce this all-important duty — 
not merely " when people are sick, but before, 
that, by a continuous homoeopathic treatment, 
begun in childhood, we may hope to anticipate 
disorders, to restore harmony, to combat the in- 
ternal psoric tendencies, and to procure a patient 
hearing and kindly reception of spiritual minis- 
trations." "When the old system/' he contin- 
ues, " shall have quite vanished from the earth, 
and the new one, Homoeopathy, shall be estab- 
lished, then, for the first time, will the Gospel of 
the Kingdom of Grace be preached as Jesus or- 
dered it to be preached, and received as God in- 
tended it to be received. " 

Here, then, we see that this English clergy- 
man makes a most solemn appeal to all who have 
ability or authority to enforce this very impor- 
tant duty. It is enjoined upon them to com- 
mence the homoeopathic medication iu childhood, 
to employ it in health, and persist in its use un- 
til the inherent psoric taint which the human 
race have inherited from Adam is thoroughly 
eradicated. 

This reverend clergyman did not himself pre- 






HOMOEOPATHY. 141 

scribe the particular means by which this moral 
renovation is to be effected. It is to be done 
by homoeopathic medication, but the particulars 
are left to the faculty. For the best means to 
be used for this purpose, we are indebted to Dr. 
Mure, of whom I have before spoken as presi- 
dent of the homoeopathic school at Rio de Janei- 
ro. In a work of his, called " Pathogenesie," he 
devotes twelve pages to the consideration of 
this subject, and announces, as he says, " with a 
feeling of inward satisfaction," that he has dis- 
covered a new and grand specific for hereditary 
psora. He proceeds to say, " It is unnecessary 
to describe at length this remedy, the animal be- 
ing sufficiently known, viz., Pediculus Capitis, or 
human louse." This animal is to be dynamized 
with sugar of milk, and administered in the form 
of small white powders, or used in fluid attenua- 
tions as the practitioner may prefer. 

The astounding absurdity of this scheme is 
without a parallel, and we scarcely know whe- 
ther it most deserves censure or ridicule. Such 
a plan probably never before entered into the 
thoughts of any sane man. If ever the sublime 
13 



142 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

and ridiculous meet, it is in this homoeopathic 
phantasm. The discovery that the innate moral 
taint which it is supposed the human race have 
derived from their first progenitor?, may be 
wholly eradicated by the use of lice tea, is the 
exclusive property of pure Homoeopathy. It 
should be recorded in capitals in the archives of 
that wonderful science, and published to all the 
world for the benefit of mankind: and it is to be 
hoped that no one who adopts that system will 
neglect this most essential part of the practice. 

Yet as strange as it may seem, let it not be 
supposed that Dr. Mure stands alone in this mat- 
ter; his practice is in perfect accordance witli a 
fixed principle of Homoeopathy, which is every- 
where recognized. u Similia similibus curan- 
tar" is their law of cure. Dr. Hering recom- 
mended the swallowing of the 30th attenuation 
of bugs to cure bug bites; Dr. Rummell and oth- 
ers gave the attenuated virus of the smallpox 
for the cure of that disease ; and Hahnemann be- 
lieved that all medicinal substances produced emo- 
tional or moral affections of some sort. Accord- 
ins: to Jahr's Manual, which is the backbone of 



HOMCEOPATHY. 143 

Homoeopathy, every article used in medicine, 
even in decillionth doses, produces some pecu- 
liar moral symptoms. Sulphur produces " de- 
spair of eternal salvation " ; pulsatilla produces 
" continual praying " ; gold taken internally pro- 
duces "excessive scruples of conscience"; colo- 
cynth produces a " want of all religious feeling " ; 
and aconite an " irresistible desire to swear and 
blaspheme." (See Jahr's Manual, Paris edit.) 

In the British Journal of Homoeopathy, pub- 
lished in 1849, Hahnemann is styled the "inde- 
fatigable apostle of Homoeopathy"; the system 
is declared to be " not a science merely, but also, 
for those who comprehend it, a sublime devo- 
tion, a form of religion, a rainbow of divine 
union, holding out to mankind the promise of 
speedy regeneration." This speedy regenera- 
tion, as we have seen, was to be effected, 
not by moral means, but by the internal ad- 
ministration of the pediculus capitis, or hu- 
man louse, which, taken in decillionth doses, Dr. 
Mure assures us will effectually eradicate that 
innate corruption which has been suffered to run 
in the blood of #11 the descendants of Adam, 



144 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

Having examined a specimen of Hahnemann ? 3 
theology, we will next take a view of his patho- 
logy. As we have before stated, Hahnemann 
informs us in his Organon, page 183, that he la- 
bored twelve years in searching for the first or 
original cause of chronic diseases, and finally as- 
certained it to be a hereditary taint, or, to use 
his own language, " a monstrous internal miasm 
— the psora." This " internal miasm," he sup- 
posed, was an invisible poison which corrupted 
the blood of all the human race. When it mani- 
fested itself in the genuine type, it was psora, 
or itch. But this same itch miasm, as he called 
it, appeared in other forms. In one case it was 
scrofula, in another it was rheumatism, in ano- 
ther it was asthma, in another it was epilepsy, 
and in another it was consumption. So that 
nearly all chronic diseases, as Hahnemann sup- 
posed, were only so many different forms in 
which this itch poison operated and showed it- 
self, and therefore were in reality only so many 
varieties of itch. They were all precisely of 
the same nature, and arose from the same iden- 
tical cause, viz., the u monstrous internal miasm," 



HOMCEOPATHY. 145 

Now let us see how this doctrine compares 
with the present state of medical science. Psora 
or itch has been ascertained to be a local dis- 
ease; which never arises from any constitutional 
affection, but is produced by a minute insect 
called acarus scabiei, which burrows in the der- 
ma, beneath the cuticle, and produces the irrita- 
tion, itching and eruption which characterize 
that disorder. This little parasitic animal often 
passes from one person to another by personal 
contact, or in some article of clothing, and is the 
sole and only cause of psora or itch. In order 
to cure the itch, therefore, this animal must be 
destroyed, and this is effected by topical applica- 
tions alone. When this is done, the patient is 
cured. Hahnemann spent twelve of the best 
years of his life in searching for the common 
cause of chronic diseases, and the fruit of all that 
labor was nothing but the absurd and ridiculous 
idea of a hereditary itch miasm, and ocular de- 
monstration shows that to be utterly false. He 
and his disciples gloried in this discovery; it laid 
a foundation for their pathology and therapeutics 
in all, or nearly all, chronic diseases. But it 
13* 



146 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

was of vastly more importance in a religious 
point of view. They made it the foundation of 
a system of theology ; it showed them ; as they 
thought; the true source of all moral disorders, 
and pointed out the remedy by medication. The 
British Journal of Homoeopathy says that this is 
" that discovery which forms the most beautiful 
gem in the immortal crown of Hahnemann." But, 
alas for Hahnemann, and alas for Homoeopathy ! 
the discovery of the little acarus scabiei over- 
threw at the same time all their proud systems 
both in medicine and theology, and buried, in 
contemptible oblivion, " the most beautiful gem 
in that immortal crown." He and his disciples 
toiled and labored for twelve long years to find 
the common source of all the numerous streams 
and rivulets of human ills, and when they had 
arrived at the supposed goal, and gazed in deli- 
rious exultation upon the mystic fountain, the 
chimera vanished and left them in total darkness. 



HOMCEOPATHY. 147 



CHAPTER XI. 

HOMCEOPATHY CONTINUED. ITS CHANGING AND UNSETTLED 

CONDITION DR. HERING ? S SENTIMENTS WORTH OF 

HOMCEOPATHIC PRACTICE ANECDOTE BY DR. MEAD 

DANGER FROM HOMCEOPATHY SALIVA OF BOA CON- 
STRICTOR, ETC. ETC. 

We have seen how, and when, and where, Ho- 
moeopathy originated. We have examined its 
principles and considered their operations. We 
have seen that its theories are wholly visionary, 
and in direct opposition to those immutable laws 
by which all things are governed. We have seen 
the whole scheme contradicted and refuted, by 
all reliable history and experience ; and if this is 
not enough, we shall now see it repudiated by 
its disciples and followers. We have seen what 
Hahnemann's Homoeopathy was, and what all 
his honest followers professed and practised ; 
and now we will endeavor to ascertain what 
Homoeopathy is at the present time. As soon as 
Hahnemann had published his theories and plans 
of operations, all competent judges decided 



148 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

that they were untrue and could not be sus- 
tained. The whole system appeared like the 
dream of some wild fanatic — the vagaries of a 
disordered brain — a castle built in the air, 
which must be crushed to atoms by its own iner- 
tia. Yet his disciples announced it as a new 
and great discovery — the beginning of an im- 
portant era in medicine, which was destined to 
overthrow and nullify all the knowledge which 
had been garnered up through all past time — a 
gift sent from Heaven to bless the world through- 
out all coming generations. Hahnemann was 
declared to be the spiritual messenger charged 
with the important mission of redeeming the 
whole human race from the curse of Allopathy. 

As early as 1833, whilst Hahnemann was still 
living and teaching his peculiar principles in 
France, some of his most intelligent disciples 
began to question the tenets of their great mas- 
ter. In 1836, Constantine Hering, of Pennsyl- 
vania, "who assisted in preparing for publication 
Hahnemann's " Organon of Homoeopathic Medi- 
cine/' makes the following declaration in his pre- 
face to that work (page 15) : 



HOMCEOPATHY. 149 

u For myself, I am generally considered as a 
disciple and adherent of Hahnemann, and I do 
indeed declare that I am one among the most 
enthusiastic in doing homage to his greatness ; 
but nevertheless I declare also, that since my 
first acquaintance with homoeopathy (in the year 
1821), down to the present day, I have never yet 
accepted a single theory in the Organon as it is 
there promulgated. I feel no aversion to ac- 
knowledge this even to the venerable sage himself. 
It is the genuine Hahnemannean spirit totally 
to disregard all theories, even those of one's 
own fabrication, when they are in opposition to 
the results of pure experience. All theories and 
hypotheses have no positive weight whatever, 
only so far as they lead to new experiments, and 
afford a better survey of the results of those al- 
. ready made. 

" Whoever, therefore, will assail the theories of 
Hahnemann, or even altogether reject them, is at 
perfect liberty to do so; but let him not imagine 
that he has thereby accomplished a memorable 
achievement. In every respect it is an affair of 
little importance." 

Hahnemann's whole scheme, as I have said be- 
fore, was built upon two ideas, viz., his doctrine 
of attenuations, and his hypothesis that like is 



150 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

cured by like. The first he reduced to positive 
mathematical rules, which he ordained as the 
fixed and unchangeable law of Homoeopathy. 
The latter could only be settled by repeated ex- 
periments and extensive observations. Accord- 
ingly, he made trials of various articles upon 
himself and others, and directed his followers to 
do the like ; so that, after all, the selection of the 
remedy to be used in any given case was left to 
the judgment and choice of each individual prac- 
titioner. And as only infinitesimal doses were 
to be employed in such experiments, it is easy 
to see that the experience of no two would be 
likely to correspond, and consequently all ho- 
moeopathic practitioners would be left without 
any guide in therapeutics, unless they followed 
some master spirit of their own sort, who knew 
no more than they did themselves, or borrowed 
our materia medica. Therefore some preferred 
one course, and some the other, and others both. 
But having no fixed bond of union, except the law 
of attenuations, and their faith in that also be- 
coming attenuated, they were soon found to dis- 
agree in many essential particulars. Some ad- 



HOMCEOPATHY. 151 

hered strictly to the rules laid down by Hahne- 
mann, whilst others declared that Homoeopathy 
should not be fettered by any rigid rules, but 
that every practitioner should be left to pursue 
such a course as his own judgment might dictate ; 
so that in a short time many nominal homoeopa- 
thists were found utterly to disregard every 
principle which Hahnemann had laid down. But 
as no possible harm can arise from administering 
attenuated doses indiscriminately in all cases, and 
as it is the most easy and most convenient course, 
many still choose to follow it, and leave their 
patients to the recuperative powers of nature. 
Others follow this course, or depart from it, as 
occasion seems to require. In his old age Hah- 
nemann rejoiced in the thought that he had ac- 
complished his object, and established his medi- 
cal scheme upon a sure foundation. But, alas ! 
even now when he has but just parted with his 
visions of infinitesimals, and bid adieu to his 
dear Organon, shuffled off his mortal coil, and 
laid himself down to rest, many of his beloved 
disciples repudiate all his doctrines. They do, 
indeed, preserve the name of Homoeopathy, as a 



152 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

kind of banner, upon which they think they see 
inscribed, in mystic characters, u By this ye shall 
conquer." 

We are now prepared to understand and esti- 
mate the nature and effects of homoeopathic 
practice. If the practitioner adheres strictly 
and honestly to the principles and rules laid 
down by Hahnemann, and regulates his practice 
by such authors as Jahr, Possart, Laurie, Hull, 
Duglas, Teste, and Miss Emma Cote, he will do 
no positive harm. Everything which he pretends 
to administer will be so attenuated that neither 
good nor harm can possibly arise from its use in 
any case, or in any dose. It can only serve to 
amuse the patient or his friends, whilst the ef- 
forts of nature, if they are sufficient, restore him 
to health. But if nature cannot accomplish this 
without assistance, she sinks under the load, and 
the patient dies. 

But I am told that Homoeopathy is not now 
what it was once, and that many new discoveries 
have been made in Hahnemann's great discove- 
ry, and that great improvements have been made 
upon his great improvements ; or, in other words. 



HOMCEOPATHY. 153 

that Homoeopathy now, is not Homoeopathy at 
all. I am aware that many may have adopted 
the name of Homoeopathy without sincerely 
adopting its principles, and only maintain an 
outward show because it is most fashionable and 
appears to promise the greatest pecuniary suc- 
cess. An anecdote, related some years since, by 
Dr. Mead, of London, may serve to explain the 
motives of this class of practitioners. " A man of 
good education had become a quack, and had a 
booth in one of the most frequented streets of 
London. He calculated on the weakness and 
credulity of mankind, and made a most fortunate 
speculation. Mead, regretting that an intelli- 
gent man, capable of advancing truth, should de- 
grade himself to such a trade, advised him to 
abandon it. l How many men a day/ said the 
quack, < do you think pass through this street ? ' 
1 Perhaps twenty thousand/ said the doctor. 
1 And how many of these do you suppose possess 
the right use of their senses, and a sound judg- 
ment?' 'Five hundred.' 'The proportion is 
too great/ said the quack. 'A hundred, then.' 
1 Still too much.' At last they agreed to reckon 
14 



154 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

them at ten. < Let me alone, then/ said the 
quack; 'let me levy on these nineteen thousand 
nine hundred and ninety fools the tribute which 
they owe me, and I have no objection to the ten 
having in you that confidence which most assur- 
edly you well deserve. " 

One homoeopathist tells me, "You may no 
longer smile at the supposed inertness of homoeo- 
pathic medicines, for I carry in my case a medi- 
cine of which, if a man should take one drop, he 
would never know what hurt him." Now if this 
medicine is an honest homoeopathic attenuation 
of no matter what drug, the man who should 
swallow it would " never know what hurt him, 1 
because he would not be hurt at all. But if it is 
some powerful concentrated poison, which is ca- 
pable of destroying life so suddenly, then this is 
a dangerous article and in dangerous hands. We 
have seen that white arsenic is a common homoe- 
opathic remedy; yet there are other poisons in 
constant use among this class of practitioners 
much more virulent and much more dangerous, 
such as strychnine, phosphorus, elaterin, atro- 
pine, and many others. Any of these, incorpo- 



HOM(EOPATHY. 155 

rated with sugar of milk, can be given in small 
white powders without the least trouble ; and 
whilst the patient and his friends suppose it is 
the same harmless thing as before, it is a concen- 
trated poison disguised by sugar. This is one 
of the great improvements in Homoeopathy. Ev- 
ery intelligent practitioner knows that pure at- 
tenuations are useless except as placeboes ; there- 
fore when such men wish to use an active reme- 
dy, they have recourse to such concentrated ar- 
ticles as can be given in the guise of Homoeopa- 
thy. In this way, the most dangerous weapons 
are concealed under the apparently inoffensive 
garb of Homoeopathy — weapons, which are al- 
ways dangerous in any hands, and doubly so in 
the hands of men whose reason has gone astray 
In chasing the phantoms of Hahnemann, and 
whose brain has been jarred by Jahr's Manual. 

Homoeopathists see that patients prefer to 
swallow little doses of tasteless powders, and 
they cater for that appetite. The sick man is 
struck with horror at the thought of castor oil — 
he can never endure it ; but he will swallow, 
without reluctance, one-fiftieth of a grain of ela- 



156 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 

terin which is ten times more powerful than an 
ordinary dose of castor oil. These things come 
to us in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are 
ravening wolves. 

Some prefer to take the homoeopathic medi- 
cines because they are so very nice. But do 
they know that the poison saliva of the boa con- 
strictor is a homoeopathic remedy for weakness, 
gout, rheumatism, faintings, nervous affections, 
dyspepsia, vomiting, hysteria, palpitation of the 
heart in young girls, and just one hundred other 
complaints? (See Jahr's Manual, pages 310 — 
311.) Do they know that spiders, worms, bugs, 
and lice, are homoeopathic remedies for purifying 
the humors, and that the scab of the smallpox is 
the standing remedy for that disease ? These 
and many more of the like kind are some of the 
exquisite morsels of Homoeopathy. 



MOMCEGPATHY. 157 



CHAPTER XII. 



HOM(EOPATHY IN EUROPE* 



Boasting is the never-failing accompaniment 
of Empiricism ; and wherever it is seen, in or out 
of the profession, it is a positive indication of 
emptiness and quackery. The advocates of Ho- 
moeopathy tell us that their system has already 
attained a high position in the old countries, and 
is everywhere rapidly gaining ground. We are 
told that it is well established in Great Britain, 
and that among its supporters are many dignita- 
ries of both church and state. Now let us see 
how these wholesale statements compare with 
facts of their own showing. This mode of prac- 
tice, which many people suppose is so very new, 
is nearly half a century old, having been intro- 
duced into Great Britain about forty years ago. 
There has therefore been ample time for its trial 
and adoption, if it were found of value. The 
most extraordinary and persevering efforts were 
14* 



158 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

made to introduce it among the clergy and titled 
nobility, and it was tried in hospitals. Homoeo- 
pathic practitioners increased faster than their 
patients, and resort was had to free dispensaries 
as a means of increasing the number of patients, 
and giving publicity to that mode of practice. 
Unremitting exertions were made to introduce 
Homoeopathy into every nook and corner where 
it might possibly gain vitality. 

And what is the result of thirty or forty years' 
labor in that cause ? Great Britain is supposed 
to contain about thirty millions of inhabitants, 
and the whole number of regular physicians can- 
not be less than thirty thousand. The number 
of homoeopathic practitioners, all told, according 
to their own showing, is just two hundred and 
thirty, and it is believed that a considerable de- 
duction might be made from that small number. 
But taking their own statement to be correct, 
there are at the present time, in Great Britain, 
about eight homoeopathic practitioners to every 
thousand regular physicians. And with these 
statistics staring us in the face, we are told that 
Homoeopathy is in a very prosperous condition 



HOMCEOPATHY. 159 

in Great Britain. We are told that Homoeopa- 
thy was first introduced among the nobility, that 
its principal support at the present time is from 
that class, and that all the middling classes gene- 
rally adhere to the regular system. The pau- 
pers who receive their prescriptions at free dis- 
pensaries, neither know nor care anything about 
medical systems ; it is all the same to them, so 
long as they can be served free of charge. The 
English nobility are generally above giving their 
attention to the examination of abstruse medical 
theories ; they are willing to let medicine alone, 
so long as they enjoy their ordinary health. 
Some have but little confidence in any system of 
medical practice, and all prefer those means which 
subject them to the least inconvenience. The 
whole truth seems to be, that all the middle 
classes, who constitute three-fourths of the whole 
population — all the thinking, reasoning, strong- 
minded, common-sense men of Great Britain, re- 
ject Homoeopathy; — and that, besides the pau- 
pers, it has little or no support except from a 
few of the higher classes who think it beneath 
them to think at all about medical systems, and 



160 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

who consequently know little of the merits of 
any, and are likely to adopt that course which 
promises most with the least means. 

But we are told that the English people are 
so fixed in their habits and opinions, that it is 
very hard to introduce any new improvement 
among them ; that they adhere with such tenacity 
to their established customs that it is only by 
very slow degrees that they can be induced to 
accept of newly discovered truths. They have 
had forty years to examine Homoeopathy ; — a 
whole generation has come and gone since its 
introduction, and we should think that they had 
had sufficient time to discover its merits if it had 
any. But is it a fact that this people is so ob- 
stinate and determined in rejecting every new 
thing that is offered thein? How was it with 
the telegraph ? How was it with the discovery 
of sulphuric ether as an anesthetic ? and how has 
it been with all genuine discoveries and improve- 
ments ? That people have always caught and 
adopted them with the utmost avidity. Every 
improvement in science or mechanics, no matter 
where it originated, as soon as it has touched 



HOMCEOPATHY. 161 

the soil of Great Britain has spread with the 
rapidity of lightning over all the kingdom ; and 
inasmuch as Homoeopathy, after a trial of forty 
years, is still sternly rejected, its advocates may 
well abandon all hope of success in that country. 
Again, we are told that Homoeopathy is in- 
creasing rapidly on the continent of Europe. It 
is said that Paris, which has a population of one 
million one hundred thousand, and one thousand 
five hundred regular practitioners, has ninety ho- 
moeopathists ; that Madrid, with a population 
of two hundred and sixty thousand, has fifty ho- 
moeopathists; that Marseilles, with a population 
of two hundred thousand, has five ; that Bor- 
deaux, with a population of one hundred and 
twenty thousand, has three ; and Lyons, with a 
population of two hundred and fifty thousand, has 
six. In Leipsic, the birthplace of Homoeopathy, 
according to recent accounts there are one hun- 
dred and twenty-five regular physicians, and only 
two homoeopathic practitioners. Hamburg has 
one hundred and eighty-three regular physicians, 
and only one homoeopathic practitioner. In all 
the cities and medical schools along the Rhine, 



162 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

Homoeopathy has become extinct ; and like the 
smoke of the witch fires which two centuries ago 
darkened the atmosphere of those regions, the 
delusion of Homoeopathy has wholly passed 
away. Vienna, with a population of five hun- 
dred thousand, and the largest hospital in the 
world, has more than five hundred educated phy- 
sicians, and not more than thirty homoeopathic 
practitioners, and this small number is constantly 
diminishing. The whole of Germany, Switzer- 
land, and Northern Italy, with a population of 
forty-one millions, and having forty thousand 
educated physicians, claims to have four hundred 
and thirty-nine homoeopathic practitioners. Yet 
among all that number there is not a single emi- 
nent man, and very few who are in any way re- 
spectable. The number of under-graduates that 
are annually matriculated at the regular medical 
schools in Germany, is on an average about twen- 
ty thousand. 

TTe are told that the French Empress fa vors 
Homoeopathy: but we happen to know that her 
attending physician is no other than Baron Paul 
Dubois, one of the most splendid and most emir 



HOMOEOPATHY. 163 

nent of regular physicians. We know, too, that 
a few years ago an editor at Naples published a 
puff upon Homoeopathy, and stated that the King 
favored it, and that he was thereupon arrested 
for libel and thrust into prison among criminals, 
from which he barely escaped with his life. There 
is not a single government in Europe where Ho- 
moeopathy is held to be anything else than quack- 
ery, and it is believed that there are several 
other kinds of quackery which can count more 
advocates. 

In 1855, the English homoeopathists petitioned 
Lord Panmure to be allowed to take charge of 
one of the hospitals in the Crimea. His Lord- 
ship, in reply, informed the applicants, that al- 
though medical service there was very much 
needed, he could never think of employing them, 
as their pretensions were so false. 

Homoeopathy has always strove to insinuate 
itself among the nobility, and to gain favor with 
crowned heads. One or more practitioners of 
that kind attended the late Emperor of Eussia 
in his last sickness ; and of this, Homoeopathy 
did not forget to boast. But it was the opinion 



164 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

of regular physicians who were informed of the 
circumstances of the case, that the Emperor might 
have been saved by proper efficient treatment. 
His son, the present Emperor Alexander, soon 
after he came to the throne, published an impe- 
rial edict, banishing forever from all his domin- 
ions Homoeopathy and all other kinds of quack- 
ery, so that now not a single irregular practi- 
tioner can be found in all the vast dominions of 
Russia. This is certainly no very flattering 
compliment to Homoeopathy. 

This, then, is the condition of that system of 
medicine which its advocates say is everywhere 
rapidly increasing. This is the proud condition 
to which Homoeopathy has attained in the first 
half century of its history. 

The last Homoeopathic hospital in England 
died a natural death last spring. The following 
is from the London Lancet : — " The last hospi- 
tal devoted to this delusion in London has closed 
its doors. It has dwindled down into a 'tem- 
porary office/ and a l dispensary for out patients.' 
We hear much of the success of Homoeopathy, 
and yet the friends of the humbug cannot sub- 



HOMGEOPATHY. 165 

scribe sufficient funds to support a ' hospital ' 
even at a private house. Like all quackeries it 
has been supported by the shallow, weak and 
credulous, on one side, and the charlatan and 
the rogue on the other. Such alliances are in- 
variably broken when either the eyes of the one 
are opened, or the rapacity of the other is not 
gratified." 



15 



166 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS UPON HOMCEOPATHY. 

After twenty years of drowsy incubation, 
Hahnemann brought forth his Homoeopathy. 
Wholly wrapped up in his own nebulous sphere, 
he seemed to see, and hear, and know, nothing 
but this darling idea. Like an enchantress, this 
greeted his earliest thoughts in the morning, and 
gilded his latest dreams by night. Absorbed in 
his own fanciful speculations, he became heed- 
less of all the world beside, and with the ardor 
of a fanatic strove to gain converts to his new 
scheme. But year after year passed, whilst he 
made but little progress. The Germans, al- 
though a visionary and enthusiastic people, had 
nevertheless too much common sense to embrace 
such glaring absurdities. He met with so little 
success in his own country, that, after nearly 
twenty years spent in writing, and teaching, he 
had made but meagre progress, and found him- 
self surrounded only bv a handful of followers. 



HOMOEOPATHY. 167 

During that twenty years whilst Hahnemann 
was brooding over his hallucination; the true sci- 
ence of medicine was making rapid advances, and 
every year and every month witnessed important 
discoveries and improvements. Hahnemann, ri- 
veted to his vision of infinitesimals, looked with 
painful chagrin upon his pitiful success, and re- 
solved to shake off the dust of his feet and aban- 
don his own country in hopeless disgust. France 
was chosen as his place of refuge ; and according- 
ly, about the year 1820, he bade a final farewell 
to the land of his nativity, the graves of his an- 
cestors and his own Alma Mater, and took up his 
abode in Paris. Here he found a more conge- 
nial field. This versatile and enthusiastic peo- 
ple have ever been ready for a change — ever 
ready to give up whatever is old for anything 
that is new. Celebrated as they are the world 
over for their chivalry and prowess, they are 
nevertheless the most unstable of all people. 
Their civil, religious and social institutions are 
always either changing or preparing to change. 
At the time of Hahnemann's debut in Paris ; 
France seemed to be enjoying a moment of calm 



168 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

though fearful repose. Napoleon had been driven 
into exile, but the spirit of revolutions had not 
been subdued. Although the storm had ceased 
to rage without; yet everywhere, within, her civil 
and social institutions had been thrown into con- 
fusion by the tremendous concussions to which 
she had been subjected. The face of society was 
wholly unsettled, and every institution shook, 
and quivered, like some frail bark upon the tre- 
mulous bosom of a troubled ocean. This was 
in all respects a most favorable spot for the in- 
troduction of Homoeopathy. Here Hahnemann 
made his stand, unpacked his bundles, and began 
to publish his new scheme ; and, like some wan- 
dering gipsy, soon drew around him many who 
gazed and wondered, and some who believed or 
pretended to believe. 

When we consider the vacillating and enthu- 
siastic temperament of the people, and the state 
of the public mind in France at that time, we 
wonder not that so many, but that so few, em- 
braced the new doctrine. When we see this 
same people in a single day renounce all their 
religious institutions, profane, despoil and plun- 



HOMOEOPATHY. 169 

der their own consecrated churches, and abolish 
the Sabbath and its worship — when we see the 
highest of the clergy publicly lay aside their 
robes, doff their mitres and cast away their cro- 
siers, crosses, and rings, and most solemnly ab- 
jure that religion which they and their fathers 
for many generations had observed and kept — 
when we behold the Bible burnt by the common 
hangman, and temples dedicated to the goddess 
of Reason, and hear the public annunciation that 
there is no other God to be worshipped — and 
again, when we see this same people publicly 
dethrone their goddess of Reason and place 
a harlot in her stead — when we see an ig- 
norant peasant girl spring from obscurity to 
command their armies and dictate the coronation 
of their King — and again, when we see the 
masses who but yesterday kissed her garments 
and strewed her way with flowers, burn this same 
innocent female at the stake for no other crime 
than holding the same principles for which they 
had worshipped her — when we behold a raging 
faction hurrying its victims to the guillotine, and 
while yet the ponderous blade is dripping with 
15* 



170 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

blood, we see the victors become the victims, 
and the merciless engine go on with its work of 
death and mingle the blood of contending parties 
in the same pool — when we hear the populace 
cry Vive le Roi one day, and Vive VEmpereur 
the next — and when we consider, too, that the 
unthinking masses often neither understand what 
they reject nor what they embrace — when, I 
say, we see and consider all these things, we 
cannot be surprised that among these same 
masses individuals should be found who were 
ready to relinquish the proper system of rational 
medicine, and embrace the vagaries of Homoeo- 
pathy. The early disciples of Hahnemann were 
not such men as Bichat, Dupuytren, Yelpeau and 
Ricord; but men of slender attainments, whose 
standing and qualifications did not entitle them 
to much eminence in the profession, but whose 
vanity and ambition could find full scope in Ho- 
moeopathy — men who chose rather to reign in 
hell than serve in heaven. 

Hahnemann was sixty-five years old when he 
arrived in France. Forty-five years had elapsed 
since he heard his last medical lecture. During 



HOMOEOPATHY. 171 

almost half a century his mind had been wholly 
abstracted from the regular profession. He had 
been engaged in a great variety of pursuits, and 
had wandered far and wide, in the wild fields of 
the fairies, without gathering either fruits or 
flowers. He had never been engaged in the 
practice of medicine, and at that advanced period 
of his life, if he retained any traces of his youth- 
ful acquirements, they were at least half a cen- 
tury old. So far as his medical knowledge was 
concerned, he was like a man who had been in- 
carcerated in a dungeon during the preceding 
half century. Since his exile from the profession, 
it had undergone the most rapid and important 
improvements. Chemistry had become almost 
an entire new science. The theories of Haller 
and Van Swieten, which were taught Hahne- 
mann, had long been exploded. Practical medi- 
cine had undergone an entire reformation, and 
every year, month and day, witnessed continual 
improvements in the science and art of medicine. 
And as Hahnemann never studied medicine after 
this time, it is very certain that up to the day of 
his death he remained profoundly ignorant of all 
that truly pertained to it as a science. 



172 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

In France, the old man soon found himself 
surrounded by a set of flatterers, who, like the 
fox in the fable, commended the singing, in the 
hope of being benefited by it. Hahnemann was 
never a genius, or endowed with strong reason- 
ing powers. The axiom upon which he built his 
Homoeopathy did not originate with him, but the 
proverbs that "like cures like,*' and that •'• part 
strengthens part," were ancient by-words, brought 
down from the dark ages, and which science had 
long exploded. Nor did the use of sugar place- 
boes originate with him; but this also is a part 
of the scheme of Asclepiades, a most arrant 
quack, who lived before the Christian era. Hah- 
nemann wrote much, and, like a superannuated 
fanatic, repeated for the thousandth time his il- 
lusory phantoms. The labors of his whole life 
form a mass of chaff, in which no grains can be 
found worth preserving. The disciples of Hah- 
nemann adopted the Organon for their guide, 
just as the followers of Joe Smith adopt the 
Mormon Bible. Having at length attained to 
an extreme old age, and surrounded by a few 
mendacious fawning disciples, he died in Paris, 
in 1843, being eighty-eight years of age. 



HOMCEOPATHY. 173 

Hahnemann had not been long in Paris before 
a crowd of aspirants gathered around him, anx- 
ious to borrow his thunder. Medical writings, 
based upon Hahnemann's written and oral teach- 
ings, soon made their appearance. So anxious 
were the new converts to be first in the race, 
that in a short time quite a large number of ho- 
moeopathic works had been written in the French 
language. Many of these were soon translated 
into other languages, and in a short time the ad- 
vocates of this new scheme, book in hand, ran- 
sacked all Europe. Everywhere all learned 
and competent judges rejected it as a tissue of 
ridiculous absurdities ; yet the ignorant and un- 
thinking were sometimes made to believe, and 
men of indifferent attainments, itching for noto- 
riety, often became its advocates. 

At length Europe became sparsely dotted over 
with messengers of the prophet ; everywhere its 
introduction and trial was urged with a zeal de- 
serving a better cause : but whenever and wher- 
ever it was fairly examined and tested, it always 
failed. Its advocates repeated their efforts, and 
always, when the truth was known, with the same 



174 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

results. But as the cry of victory in martial 
conflicts often promotes that result; so the advo- 
cates of Homoeopathy took the hint and set up 
their universal boastings. Accidental circum- 
stances in some instances, and frauds in others, 
sometimes seemed to confirm their reports and 
give the scheme a temporary reputation. Thou- 
sands tried it because it was so easy and so 
pleasant, and all those who had little or no faith 
in any medical treatment preferred it on that 
account. But in spite of all these advantages, 
everywhere throughout Europe it is declining 
and passing away. The masses have become 
tired of the sickening monotony, and spurn the 
worthless thing, and sovereigns and nobles are 
pronouncing their denunciations against it. In 
Europe the battle is wholly lost, and nothing can 
save it from certain and speedy extinction. Its 
forlorn hopes may linger for a time in certain 
locations, but " mene tekel" is everywhere writ- 
ten upon it. Their books are all written, and 
their translations are all made. Henceforth 
Laurie, Jahr, Possart, Hering and their associ- 
ates, will have little more to do than to settle 



HOMOEOPATHY. 175 

their accounts with the great farce and sink be- 
neath the waves of returning reason. 

In the United States the subject is newer, and 
therefore not quite so nearly worn out. In some 
locations it is yet quite new ; many are curious to 
see the wonder and try it themselves, and many 
of its advocates still expect to reap golden har- 
vests from it. But its brief day of glory here 
will also soon pass away ; the clouds that are 
gathering over the eastern horizon will soon 
cover the west and spread an eternal pall over 
this strange delusion. Indeed, it would have 
come to a final end in the United States long 
ago, if homoeopathic practitioners had continued 
true to the principles laid down by Hahnemann, 
and used nothing but pure attenuations. This 
inevitable result was so apparent, that all their 
sagacious practitioners resorted to the dishonest 
use of active medicines under the guise of Ho- 
moeopathy. This is their last resort ; and as soon 
as this fraud is sufficiently exposed, Homoeopathy 
will become a hissing and a by-word. Like all 
other delusions, it succeeds better in some com- 
munities than in others. It makes little or no 



176 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

progress among men of learning and talents — 
where reason and not fashion is the guiding star ; 
but is often seen in all its mushroom glory where, 
the vain and fickle-minded give direction to pub- 
lic opinion, and its success is always in an in- 
verse ratio to the sterling talents and sound 
sense of the community where it is found. Ho- 
moeopathy is a moral epidemic, and like others 
of a physical nature it began in the east and took 
its course westward towards the setting sun; 
and when its last flickering rays of twilight shall 
sink beneath the horizon, we may safely predict 
for it a long and undisturbed repose. 



^ N 



HOMCEOPATHT. 177 



CHAPTER XIV. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA AND 
LONDON MEDICAL CIRCULAR. 

Most kinds of quackery are wont to boast of 
their success abroad. We are continually told 
that Homoeopathy is patronized to a great ex- 
tent in Europe. That such is not the case, has 
already been shown by statistical reports. The 
following extract is taken from the Encyclopoe- 
dia Britannica, which all must acknowledge is 
high authority. 

11 Of late years a class of practitioners has 
arisen, which, in so far as it is constituted of 
persons ' duly qualified/ may be designated sec- 
tarian; nevertheless, it is made up for the most 
part of charlatans. It comprises those who, 
whether duly qualified or not, practise medicine 
upon the basis of some exclusive dogma or prin- 
ciple, or with reference to some exclusive reme- 
dial agent. Legitimate medicine is catholic and 
eclectic ; it has neither exclusive dogmas nor 
creeds ; it requires its members to seek know- 
16 



178 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

ledge from every available source, and apply it 
in every available mode as may be demanded by 
the circumstances of the practitioner or the pa- 
tient; the object of the exercise of the art being 
the relief or cure of the patient as promptly, 
safely, and pleasantly as possible, without any 
formal restriction as to the means or mode. 
This sectarian class therefore separates itself 
from the catholic profession by following profess- 
edly an exclusive method. Of the followers of 
Hahnemann (designating themselves homaopa- 
thists), there are reported to be three hundred 
in the United Kingdom. (See Homoeopathy.) 
Of the followers of Priessnitz (the hydropa- 
thists) and of Mesmer (the Mesmerists), the 
numbers are much less. Indeed, the latter are 
not unfrequently homoeopathists also. 

" The i quack doctors ' are a motley body, 
comprising every kind of specialty — worm doc- 
tors, water-casters, bone-setters, astrologers, her- 
balists, ' wise men,' and ' witch-finders ' (who 
prove to be occasionally, as of old, professed 
poisoners and procurers of abortion), curers of 
syphilis and diseases of sexual organs (with 
hardly an exception a group of scoundrels), the 
< falling sickness/ &c. In this class may also be 
found venders of secret remedies in connection 
with some absurd hypothesis, as Coffin's herbs. 



._: • ^ 



HOMOEOPATHY. 179 

or Morison's pills; or itinerant practitioners of 
Homoeopathy, Mesmerism, &c. The ranks of 
the quacks are also swelled by outcasts from the 
legitimate profession : men who are excommuni- 
cated either because of their vices or of their 
follies, and who have been morally punished by 
a de facto deprivation of professional intercourse 
with their brethren. In the third class of ama- 
teurs and others are comprised country clergy- 
men, ladies having a taste for medicine, persons 
in private station with a smattering of know- 
ledge, but especially the retailers and compoun- 
ders of drugs, and professed nurses. Those 
who, when young, have abandoned or neglected 
the study of medicine as a profession, and have 
been led to follow other pursuits, are particu- 
larly apt to take up the irregular practice of it 
in after life." 

We believe there is no public hospital in the 
world where Homoeopathy is employed or al- 
lowed. In Paris, Hahnemann's adopted city, 
there are twenty-six public hospitals, having in 
all about eighteen thousand beds, and the Lon- 
don hospitals are supposed to contain at least 
twenty-five thousand, whilst Vienna has the 
largest number of free beds of any single hospi- 



180 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

tal in the world ; but not a single bed in all 
these, or anywhere that we know of in any pub- 
lic hospital, is given to Homoeopathy. 

The following is from the " Medical Circular " 
of July 29, 1857: — 

" The Decillionths of Homoeopathy. — Mr. 
Wharton, an able professor of mathematics and 
astronomy, has had the kindness to answer the 
difficult questions proposed below. His address 
is 7 Elm Terrace, Queen's Elm, Fulham Road. 

" Q. — If homoeopathists give, as they profess 
to do, the decillionth of a grain of medicine, for 
a dose, and which decillionth can only be ob- 
tained by dissolving the grain of medicine in a 
decillion drops of some liquid — say alcohol — 
how long would the grain of medicine last, if the 
population of the world were a thousand mil- 
lions, and if there were a thousand millions of 
such worlds, and if each inhabitant lived for a 
thousand years, and if they each took a dose per 
second during their whole existence ? 

"And what must be the dimensions of the ves- 
sel that would just hold the decillion drops of 
alcohol ? 

"A. — The number of generations, each sub- 
sisting a thousand years, that the grain of medi- 
cine would supply with the homoeopathic dose to 



HOMCEOPATHY. 181 

each individual per second, each generation con- 
sisting of the 1,000,000,000 inhabitants of the 
1,000,000,000 worlds is 31,687,535,943,382,425,- 
811,012,156,738,474; and the whole number of 
years the grain of medicine would last the in- 
habitants of those worlds is 31,687,535,943,382,- 
425,811,012,156,738,474 x 1000, equal to thirty- 
one thousand six hundred and eighty-seven quin- 
tillions, five hundred and thirty-five thousand 
nine hundred and forty-three quadrillions, three 
hundred and eighty-two thousand four hundred 
and twenty-five trillions, eight hundred and ele- 
ven thousand and twelve billions, one hundred 
and fifty-six thousand seven hundred and thirty- 
eight millions, four hundred and seventy-four 
thousand years ! ! ! 

" The time it would take the trillion inhabitants 
of the thousand millions worlds, each counting 
500 years per minute, without intermission, to 
count the number of years the medicine would 
last, is 120,494,090 years. 

11 The vessel that would just hold the decillion 
drops of alcohol must have its length, breadth, 
and depth, each 229,995,079,096,540 miles long. 

"Light travelling 192,500 miles in a second, 
would require 378 years to travel the length of 
one of the sides of the cubical vessel that would 
16* 



182 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 

just hold the decillion homoeopathic doses of 
medicine. 

" The spherical space which contains the solar 
system would hold only a very small part of the 
decillion drops. 

"The length of the major axis of Neptune's 
orbit, and consequently the diameter of the 
sphere, is 5,706,893,200 miles, which light would 
travel over in eight and a quarter hours. 

" If the spherical space which bounds the solar 
system, vast as it is, was increased so as to have 
its diameter 40,300 times greater, it would be 
equal in length to a side of the cubical vessel, 
but would not, of course, hold the decillion drops ; 
for if the sphere was put into the vessel, it would 
touch it only at five points, or six if covered, 
•and the angular spaces would be empty." 



HYDROPATHY. 183 



CHAPTER XV. 

HYDROPATHY. 

When a weary traveller, after having urged 
his way through dark thickets, over unsightly 
fens, or across some arid desert, arrives at last 
at a clear fountain, or stream of pure water, he 
is gratified and refreshed ; so perhaps the reader, 
after plodding through the labyrinth of Homoeo- 
pathy, will rejoice that he is for once out of the 
woods, although, it may be, soon to plunge into 
some new jungle. And if he has not, like Tan- 
talus, forgotten his thirst in the contemplation of 
infinitesimals, a little cold water may not be un- 
acceptable. Yet it is very possible that what 
we have to offer will be too lukewarm, or even 
too hot, to suit some tastes. 

Water has been employed in therapeutics, as a 
principal, or an auxiliary agent, ever since the 
Fall. The earliest families of the human race 
used it, not only as a common beverage, but also 



184 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

iu numerous external ablutions, and such appli* 
cations were often prescribed and required by 
the laws of both Jews and Gentiles ; and through- 
out all succeeding generations, there has been no 
time when it was not employed, more or less, as 
a remedial or palliative auxiliary. Baths of all 
temperatures, in all imaginable forms and condi- 
tions, medicated and unmedicated, were exten- 
sively employed by the ancient Romans, Egyp- 
tians, and many other nations, and still continue 
in use to a greater or less extent, in all hot and 
temperate regions. The employment of water 
in external purifications, led to its use as a sym- 
bol of moral cleansing, which obtains in all coun- 
tries and all religions. In very hot countries, 
where a large part of the effete matter of the body 
passes off through the skin, frequent ablutions 
are much more necessary than in cold regions ; 
and those whose habits and propensities render 
them constantly filthy, require a more frequent 
and freer use of this universal lavement, in order 
to keep the surface of the body in a healthy con- 
dition. 

One might suppose that the experience of six 



HYDROPATHY. 185 

thousand years was quite sufficient to enable 
mankind to become acquainted with the proper 
use of water as a therapeutic agent; yet if Hy- 
dropathy is true, all the wise men and philoso- 
phers, of ancient and modern times, groped their 
way in darkness and ignorance upon this subject 
until a German peasant, by the name of Priess- 
nitz, made the discovery that water is an univer- 
sal panacea which is to supersede the use of all 
other medical means. 

In 1831 Priessnitz set up the first hydropathic 
institution at Grseffenburgh. The lovers of 
novelty soon gathered around him, not in dozens 
or scores, but by hundreds and thousands, curious 
to see and try, for the first time, the sanative 
power of this universal element. The unexpect- 
ed patronage which this new lazaretto received, 
induced individuals to set up others in Germany, 
Saxony, Bohemia, Bavaria, and other parts of the 
continent of Europe. Like a mighty deluge, the 
water mania spread over Great Britain, and 
soon reached the United States. Rochester, in 
the State of New York, had the honor of the 
first hydropathic institution in America; but that 



186 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

city was not long allowed to enjoy the boon 
alone, for, as if by magic, similar institutions 
soon crowned the hills and filled the valleys in 
many parts of New York and New England, and 
were seen in the south and west, the proprietors 
of each seeking, by advertising and other means, 
to surpass every other in celebrity and reap the 
most abundant golden harvest. Books were 
written and lectures delivered in order to con- 
vince mankind of the urgent necessity of repair- 
ing immediately to these immortalizing foun- 
tains, where water was used scientifically. Nor 
was the appeal made in vain. Many who were 
already invalids, or feared they should be, bound 
up their sheets and blankets, and left their own 
quiet homes, with their running brooks, pure 
springs and silver lakes, to be ducked by an ig- 
noramus at some aquatic institution. And all 
such as had the sagacity to make the discovery, 
ascertained, before they got home, that the prin- 
cipal skill of the manager consisted in the art of 
turning his water into gold. 

The principles held by this class of practition- 
ers are vague and indefinite. The most know- 



HYDROPATHY. 187 

ing among them acknowledge that " the whole 
philosophy of the effects of water is not yet un- 
derstood by any one/' and that " those who know 
most about it have much to learn " j yet they as- 
sert that they have a perfect knowledge of all 
the means necessary to effect a cure in all cases 
by the use of water. They are quite sure that 
water is the only proper remedy in every case j 
but how it operates so as to cure in all cases, 
they cannot exactly tell. They suppose, how- 
ever, the most common cause of disease to consist 
in the lodgment of effete or morbid matter in 
some part of the body, and therefore they at- 
tempt to cure the patient by washing out these 
filthy lodgments. This appears to be their main 
idea; and although they entertain others of less 
importance, they are not less absurd. Their 
theories are mostly of a mechanical character — ■ 
they would compare the human body to a sponge, 
which they would cleanse by filling with water 
and pressing or rubbing it out. They suppose, 
however, that water may be made to produce 
various effects by various modes of application. 
We will look a little into the philosophy of 



188 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

cleansing the body of impurities by wrapping it 
in wet sheets. Up to the time of making the 
application, nature was going on with her vital 
processes, casting off useless atoms, and supply- 
ing their places with new ; but as soon as the 
aqueous envelope is applied, the cutaneous ex- 
cretories become obstructed, the efferent current 
that was setting towards the surface is arrested 
at the outlet, and by this means the effete mat- 
ter, instead of passing off, is shut up in the body, 
as it cannot readily pass off through an aqueous 
medium. No means are made use of to cleanse 
the primes vice, and every depurating outlet is 
closed. The patient, in passing through these 
aquatic transmigrations, may pass several weeks 
without any fecal evacuations. This is like at- 
tempting to cleanse a filthy fountain by damming 
up every outlet, and without removing the im- 
purities from the fountain head. But suppose 
that this artificial irrigation and champooing is 
so conducted as to increase the discharge from 
the surface of the body — the whole manoeuvre 
is nothing better than a morbid process. Is no- 
thing but injurious matter removed from the body 



HYDROPATHY. 189 

by such means ? Is not the patient made weak- 
er ? Does he not become emaciated by the pre- 
mature removal of the sound parts of his body ? 
If the patient were a fish, such a process might 
revive him ; or if he were some amphibious ani- 
mal, such treatment might be congenial to his 
nature. A state of health is when every organ, 
membrane and tissue of the body performs its 
own appropriate duty. Whatever tends to pro- 
mote and maintain such an equilibrium, is con- 
ducive to health; and whatever essentially dis- 
turbs that, produces to some extent a morbid 
condition. If the skin, by means of some artifi- 
cial stimulus, is made to perform more than its 
proper, healthy function, the proper action of 
some other organ or tissue becomes diminished 
at the same time; and, on the other hand, if the 
action of the skin is materially diminished for any 
considerable length of time, some other organ 
undertakes "the vicarious duty, and the system 
becomes deranged. On this account it is always 
highly important that all such disturbing causes 
should be avoided, and guarded against. There- 
fore we are obliged to regard many of the pro- 
17 



190 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

cesses which have been contrived to lengthen out 
the play at hydropathic institutions, not only as 
ridiculous, but positively injurious. It has never 
been pretended that water was unimportant in 
the treatment of disease — rational medicine 
has always employed it, and must continue to do 
so whilst the world stands. Its use may have 
been improperly limited in some periods, but for 
a long time past it has been employed with the 
utmost freedom in the regular practice, and we 
would encourage its use in every reasonable 
manner in health and sickness. All the benefits 
that can be derived from bathing, or the use of 
water in any other manner, are quite as well un- 
derstood by scientific physicians as by any Ger- 
man peasants or their disciples, and there is no 
necessity for any one to go abroad to be washed, 
and scrubbed, and drenched, at some water-cure 
manufactory. The quackery does not consist in 
the proper use of water, but in the empirical 
scheme that sets it up as an universal remedy, 
proper to be employed in all diseases, to the ex- 
clusion of every other means and without any 
rational bounds. 



HYDROPATHY. 191 

Let it not be supposed that even pure water 
cannot be employed excessively or injuriously. 
The legitimate consequences of continual bath- 
ing, and packings in wet envelopes, are exhaus- 
tion, debility, and early decay. Every such pro- 
cess, continued for any considerable length of 
time, is a direct tax upon the vital powers. The 
atoms which compose the substance of the body 
are prematurely hurried off — the structure is 
worn away by constant irrigation — the skin be- 
comes shrivelled and looks old — the muscles 
become flaccid, and all the bodily organs become 
more or less attenuated and atrophied. The 
cheeks fall in, and the visage is haggard. Abun- 
dant examples of this kind may be found among 
those who have long been under hydropathic 
treatment. Priessnitz himself died at the age 
of 52, with all the marks of decrepitude and ex- 
treme old age. He undoubtedly shortened his 
own life by the continual application of water to 
his own person. His biographer tells us that 
on the 27th of November, 1851, he went through 
the water-cure process for the last time, and on 
the day following, being wholly exhausted, he 



192 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

quietly laid himself down and died, a victim to 
his own monomania. 

Whenever the skin is excessively taxed, or by 
any means made to perform more than its pro- 
per share of labor in the vital organism, debility 
and decrepitude follow as the necessary sequence. 
If any one wishes to see this principle exempli- 
fied upon a larger scale, let him cast his eyes 
over the globe. The inhabitants of the Sand- 
wich Islands, of Borneo, Sumatra, and Ceylon, 
who are in the water almost as much as alliga- 
tors, and even those who bathe daily in the pure 
waters of the Ganges, are effeminate and short- 
lived. In these regions female beauty is almost 
as short-lived as that of the rose — it is on the 
decline at eighteen, and is gone at twenty-five. 
Forty years is old age. Now look at the inha- 
bitants of Greenland, Iceland, and the northern 
portions of Russia. In these regions the entire 
surface of the body is seldom or never washed 
during the whole life, and yet these people are 
healthy, vigorous and long-lived. If physiology 
and the laws of hygiene were more thoroughly 
and more generally understood, people would be 



HYDROPATHY. 193 

more cautious in tampering with the skin, or in 
any other way disturbing the harmony of the vi- 
tal organs. It is true that individuals suffering 
from gout, rheumatism, or some other chronic 
affections, may sometimes be benefited by treat- 
ment at a Water Cure Infirmary; — yet even in 
such cases the change of air, scenery, diet, and 
exercise, often contribute quite as much towards 
the improvement as the bathing and douche. 

The indiscriminate use of water to all classes 
of patients cannot be too strongly condemned. 
Serious injury has often followed its injudicious 
use in cases of grave organic affections. Patients 
of that class often return home to die, much 
sooner than they would have done under a pro- 
per treatment at their quiet homes. Therefore 
before an invalid sets his face towards one of 
these falsely-named water-cures, to be packed 
away for hours in wet sheets, and then drenched, 
and washed, and sponged, and rubbed, and 
hung up to dry, he should take the advice of 
some competent medical friend, and endeavor to 
ascertain whether, in his particular case, such 
treatment will be most likely to do good or harm. 
17* 



194 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

No class of quacks ever boasted louder or longer 
of the certainty and permanency of their cures ; 
but if we follow their patients home, we shall in 
too many instances be convinced of the falsity of 
their pretensions. 

Hanger Cure. 

As we have before stated, no empirical scheme 
ever spread more rapidly than Hydropathy, and 
certainly none ever received such liberal pecu- 
niary aid. Men of wealth in Europe and in the 
United States threw their coffers wide open, and 
free as water invested their capital in water-cure 
•establishments. Costly temples, dedicated to a 
modern iEsculapius, sprang up as if by enchant- 
ment — their spacious laboratories, extensive 
laundries and aquatic appendages, their gorgeous 
drawing-rooms and rich furniture, were indica- 
tions of ability and permanency, whilst their 
broad ensigns seemed to offer to all mankind 
free absolution and remission of all bodily ini- 
quities. These novel allurements soon filled their 
hydropathic temples with hosts of worshippers, 
and for a time everything went on swimmingly 



HYDROPATHY. 195 

— but the novelty gradually wore away, and 
their impatient patients began to want some- 
thing more than simple water to satisfy their de- 
mands. The wily managers were not slow to 
take the hint, and soon commenced adminis- 
tering medicines in conjunction with their aque- 
ous manipulations. Although this is in direct 
violation of the principles upon which they 
started, yet it serves to prop up their ephemeral 
institutions. But the moss is already beginning 
to collect upon their humid walls ; according to 
their own reports, a revolution by way of an 
improvement has sprung up in Germany, which 
has already lowered the water-cure ensign to 
half-mast, and erected over it Hunger Cure! ! 

The writer is chiefly indebted to Joel Shew, 
M.D., a talented advocate of hydropathy, for 
what information he has upon this subject. It 
appears that a German, by the name of John 
Schrott, is the author of a plan of treatment de- 
nominated the Hunger Cure. Schrott had long 
been acquainted with the water-cure process, and 
even claims to have been before Priessnitz in 
some of its modes of application. The circum- 



196 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

stances which led him to the adoption of the 
Hunger Cure are briefly these. Whilst on a 
journey, his horse broke his leg ; he applied to a 
monk, who advised him to wash the tumid leg 
often in cold water, and probe it with a sharp 
stick. But instead of complying fully with the 
monk's directions, he wound cloths about the 
limb and kept them constantly wet with cold 
water. The horse laid down and refused to eat 
or drink, but at length improved, and in ten 
weeks was well. In this case Schrott thought 
he saw an extraordinary cure, which he by the 
use of water, and the horse by his abstinence, 
had conjointly accomplished, and thereupon he 
set up an infirmary at Lindewiesse, near Grsef- 
fenburgh, where he commenced treating patients 
upon his new plan. Guided by the lesson taught 
him by his sick horse, he came to the conclusion 
that sick men should not be allowed either to 
eat or drink, because sick animals will not. He 
commences what he calls his strong cure by 
packing the entire body, except the face, in blan- 
kets, which he keeps wet for eight hours every 
day, and directs entire abstinence from both food 



HYDROPATHY. 197 

and drink ; but if the patient is very hungry, he 
allows him for one or two days to take a very 
little dry stale biscuit, but no drink of any kind 
is allowed, and the stale biscuits are given up or 
withheld after the second day. This course is 
continued from two to eight days, as the patient 
can bear it ; he says the longer it is continued, 
the better. When he thinks the process has 
been carried far enough, he takes his patient out 
of the wet blankets, and commences giving him a 
little wine, then light food, and if upon inspec- 
tion he becomes satisfied that the patient is tho- 
roughly cured, he lets him go; but if not, after a 
short interval he puts him through the same pro- 
cess a second, or if necessary a third time. 

This operation Schrott calls a " new birth," 
and declares that such a renovation is "as neces- 
sary for a man, as for a snake to change his 
skin." He supposes that men, like cattle, are 
liable to become hide-bound, and need to be 
soaked and rubbed. Perhaps some of my read- 
ers may suppose that this treatment is so ex- 
tremely ridiculous and painfully irksome, that no 
one would submit to it ; but if we may believe 



198 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

the reports, this " Hunger Cure " hospital is con- 
stantly filled with patients, and boasts of the 
most extraordinary cures. Dr. Shew, whom we 
have mentioned before, has visited that estab- 
lishment, and speaks in terms of praise of its au- 
thor. The following is an extract from a Manu- 
al recently published by Dr. Shew: — " The 
Hunger Cure can hardly be said to be a system 
yet. Of its great value, we probably as yet 
know but little. I am myself, the more I see of 
it, the more surprised at its good effects, and 
one great object I have in bringing it before the 
American people is, that we may all of us, who 
love truth, join and aid each other in the investi- 
gation of its merits. I am now in the habit, and 
have been for years, of employing it in connec- 
tion with the water treatment in various ways.'' 
Again, Dr. Shew says, " We sometimes advise 
a person to fast on Mondays, eat on Tuesdays, 
fast on Wednesdays, eat on Thursdays, fast on 
Fridays, and eat on Saturdays and Sundays ? " 
So it appears that our water-cure fraternity have 
already commenced experimenting upon this new 
and improved method of cure. If it should sue- 



HYDROPATHY. 199 

ceed as its friends hope it may, it will bring 
about an entire revolution in that branch of 
quackery ; genuine Hydropathy will be literally 
starved to death — permitted still to bathe in 
its own oblivious element, but not allowed a drop 
of water to quench its thirst. 



200 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THOMSONISM. 

Perhaps no empirical scheme ever had a more 
vigorous inception, was nursed and propagated 
with more indomitable ardor, or could boast of 
more rapid progress, than Thomsonism. Thirty 
years ago, men calling themselves Thomsonian 
doctors might be found in almost every part of 
the United States. Public opinion in medical 
matters seemed to be shaken as with an earth- 
quake, and rude unlettered quacks rode rampant 
over the country. 

The author of this system (as it was called) 
was Samuel Thomson, who was born in the town 
of Alstead, in the State of New Hampshire, Feb. 
9th, 1769. His parents were poor, and he suf- 
fered much from sickness and hardships during 
his early life. He had little or no opportunity 
for acquiring even the rudiments of a common 
school education. His minority was devoted to 



THOMSONISM. 201 

severe agricultural labor, and he grew up igno- 
rant of everything that related to science, and 
unacquainted with the world, except the little 
that had passed under his immediate notice. It 
seems that an old lady, who lived in the neigh- 
borhood of his father, often officiated in the fam- 
ily as doctress. He watched her as she pre- 
pared doses from roots and herbs, and this awa- 
kened his curiosity and led him, when a small 
boy, to take particular notice of the wild plants 
which he found in the fields. On one occasion 
he chewed so much lobelia as to become unmis- 
takably acquainted with its emetic power. This 
made a permanent impression upon his mind, and 
in after years he claimed to be the first disco- 
verer of the medicinal powers of that plant, to 
which he gave the name of Emetic Herb. He 
was not, however, the first discoverer of its effi- 
cacy, as it had been known to medical botanists 
by the name of Lobelia Inflata long before his 
time, and is said to have been used by the native 
Indians, which gave it the name of Indian To- 
bacco. Thomson's first acquaintance with lo* 
belia was made when he was only four or five 
18 



202 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

years of age, but he did not calculate upon being 
a doctor until he was past thirty. He appears 
to have held book learning in light estimation, 
and early in life to have entertained a strong an- 
tipathy towards the liberal professions. During 
ten or fifteen years, whilst engaged in ordinary 
farming, he occasionally tried his hand at doc- 
toring with roots and herbs, in his own or neigh- 
bors' families, and sometimes, as he said, cured 
rattles or croup with rattlesnake's oil. Accord- 
ing to his account, his efforts were always en- 
tirely successful, which led him to continue and 
increase his exertions. 

In 1813, when he was 44 years of age, Thom- 
son had so far matured his plans and had become 
so elated with his supposed discoveries, that he 
applied in person to the Commissioner of Pa- 
tents, and at length succeeded in obtaining a pa- 
tent for his compositions, which secured to him 
the exclusive right to use certain medicinal pre- 
parations. With the help of some friends, he 
published a pamphlet, containing some account 
of his principles and practice, with directions for 
using his medicines. These, with the right to 



THOMSONISM. 203 

tise the preparations, according to his directions, 
he sold to individuals and families for twenty 
dollars a Right. By this scheme, every family 
which purchased a Right could forever afterwards 
dispense with all other medical means. This 
patent Right gave him and his practice immedi- 
ate publicity ; his business increased rapidly, 
crowds gathered around him for agencies and 
Rights, and in a short time his disciples, fur- 
nished with books and medicines, might be seen 
threading their way over the whole country, 
ready to practise in every possible case of acci- 
dent or disease, and to sell the whole skill to 
any family for twenty dollars. The income from 
the sale of Rights, although equally divided be- 
tween the agents and himself, soon became a 
large revenue. If reports are correct, never 
was any medical treatment so successful before. 
Fevers, rheumatism, pleurisy, consumption, can- 
cers, ulcers, and broken bones, all yielded to 
this new method and were cured. The credu- 
lous looked on in astonishment — believed, and 
became advocates of this scheme which they sup- 
posed was to bring about a complete millennium 



204 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

in medicine. And when regular physicians 
everywhere exposed the ignorance and danger 
of this new method, and cautioned the public 
against it, its advocates cried out, Persecution ! ! 
They placed the name of Thomson by the side 
of Harvey and Jenner, and called upon the pub- 
lic to believe that Thomson's scheme was true 
because the discoveries of Harvey and Jenner 
proved to be so ! 

Thomson, through ignorance, supposed that 
lobelia, cayenne and other articles, which he put 
into the hands of his ignorant agents, were al- 
ways perfectly harmless and safe ; but numerous 
sad examples soon convinced the public to the 
contrary. In almost every village and hamlet 
patients died under the Thomsonian treatment. 
Thomson himself was indicted for murder, and 
confined in prison, and was finally acquitted be- 
cause the Judge charged the jury that there was 
no evidence of malice aforethought, and there- 
fore the respondent could not be held guilty of 
wilful murder, although the patient might die by 
means of the treatment, because Thomson did 
not design to kill his patient, but was trying to 



THOMSONISM. 205 

cure him. Some of his agents were also arrest- 
ed and imprisoned, but escaped punishment. Yet 
Thomson, and the thousands who had become 
interested in his cause, were not to be readily 
subdued even by the strong arm of the law. 
Commissioned with agencies and Family Rights 
for which the money had been paid, they strug- 
gled long and hard against every dictate of rea- 
son and common sense, and hundreds would never 
give it up until they found some other crazy bog 
to set their feet upon. 

Being profoundly ignorant of everything re- 
lating to medical science, Thomson's theories 
were of the rudest kind. He said he had dis- 
covered that man was composed of four ele- 
ments — earth, water, fire, and air. The first 
two constituted the substance of the machine, 
and the last two kept it in motion. Heat, he 
ascertained, is life, and cold is death — the sto- 
mach is the furnace, and food the fuel in health, 
assisted by medicine in disease. The stomach, 
like a fireplace or stovepipe, he supposed was 
liable to get foul, and clogged, and need clean- 
ing out, and that all disease is caused by some 
18* 



206 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 

filthy accumulation, and that all the art of cure 
consists in removing such accumulations and 
thoroughly cleansing the machine. As minerals 
are not generally combustible, he concluded they 
were unfit for fuel in the stomach, and therefore 
should not be used as medicines. He declared 
that an all- wise Creator must have furnished ev- 
ery part of the world with medicine sufficient for 
the wants of all its inhabitants. All his medical 
efforts were designed to maintain or increase 
the inward heat, or life as he called it, and he 
supposed that whenever this internal heat be- 
came reduced as low as the external tempera- 
ture, the machine must cease to move and the 
patient die. He called scientific men book-doc- 
tors, and lost no opportunity to reproach and 
deride them. He scouted the idea of learning 
the art of medicine by study, and declared that 
study was no more necessary for a doctor than 
for a cook. 

Bold, ardent and sincere, he was listened to 
with attention, and his remarks fell with force 
upon his hearers. His disciples saw that he was 
verily in earnest, and often caught the same 



THOMSONISM. 207 

spirit. They formed associations in various 
parts of the United States, which were called 
" Friendly Botanic Societies," and each of these 
sent delegates annually to a general Botanic 
Convention. This grand consociation met each 
year at some appointed place. In 1825 it met in 
Boston. For a time Thomson and his disciples 
supposed that the death warrant of legitimate 
medicine was sealed. Never did a class of quacks 
boast of success more loudly or more positively, 
or struggle against opposition with more deter- 
mined heroism. It is supposed that there were 
at one time in the United States between one 
and two thousand Thomsonian or Botanic practi- 
tioners, besides those which had Family Rights 
for their own use. Itinerant practitioners spread 
Thomson's papers, medicines, and principles, in 
the South, over the far West, and even carried 
them into Canada. Sometimes men of wealth, 
learning and influence favored the scheme, and 
many clergymen and other literary men gave it 
their support. 

Perhaps this strange delusion had reached its 



208 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

culminating point previous to 1835. Like all 
other delusions ; having no foundation in truth it 
was destined to perish. Whenever the atten- 
tion of intelligent; reflecting men was directed 
to it; they saw its absurdities and its dangers, 
and opposed it, and the great number of sudden 
deaths which took place under its operations 
alarmed the public; and often obliged the practi- 
tioner to fly from the scene of his exploits. As 
certain sagacious quadrupeds are said to quit a 
sinking ship, so Thomsonian doctors one after 
another abandoned their craft. Some returned 
to the anvil; some to the lapstone, and some to 
the plow ; others stood their ground, and con- 
tinued to practise in some way under other 
names. The out-door signs of Thomsonian doc- 
tors, and Thomsonian Infirmaries, disappeared 
in a trice, and the men who but a short time be- 
fore were Thomsonians, had now become Im- 
proved Botanic Doctors, or Eclectics, or of the 
Reformed Practice, or Homoeopathists, or Hydro- 
pathists, or Chrono-Thermalists, or something 
else; and by this process of transmigration many 



THOMSONISM. 209 

of the same class of men " still live." The actors 
are of the same class, but the play is called by a 
new name. 

In his lifetime, Thomson's friends were ready 
to bestow upon him immortal honors — they de- 
clared that his system must finally supersede all 
other medical means, and live to bless the world 
forever, and carry the name of its founder in a 
halo of glory down to the end of time. But the 
sun of his medical system has set, never to rise 
again. The same grave that closed over his 
earthly remains, seems to have swallowed up the 
last twilight rays of his once glowing vision. 

Thomson died in 1845, being 76 years of age, 
and from that day to the present no one has ever 
been known to declare himself a Thomsonian 
doctor. Here the drama closed; but the same 
actors, with numerous accessions, are still per- 
forming other farces quite as empty and quite as 
deceitful. The history of Thomson shows us 
that a single obscure individual, without friends, 
money or education, by means of his own invin- 
cible will, kept the medical world in commotion 
for nearly half a century. 



210 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER XVII, 



FEMALE PHYSICIANS. 



Within a few years past, schemes have been 
devised for introducing females into the general 
practice of medicine. The plan originated in our 
own country, and it is supposed to be the first 
time in the history of the world that such an en- 
terprise has been undertaken; and from present 
appearances, the plan is not likely to be followed 
anywhere else. To the credit of that sex be it 
said, the scheme did not originate with them, but 
was contrived and set on foot by men. There 
are always misanthropic individuals who are con- 
stantly at war with the established institutions 
of society, who would, if they could, reverse the 
order of nature. It is from that class of unsta- 
ble, fickle-minded men, whose ambition far ex- 
ceeds their merits, that this movement emana- 
ted ; and when the honest men whose aid has 
been fraudulently obtained shall discover their 



FEMALE PHYSICIANS. 211 

mistake, the whole scheme must be abandoned 
for want of support. That females may, under 
certain circumstances and to a certain extent; 
render medical services to the sick, and espe- 
cially those of their own sex, is not denied ; but 
the idea of their engaging in the general prac- 
tice of medicine and surgery, is preposterous. 

Nature has evidently designed each of the 
sexes for some common and some special duties. 
Besides those offices which may be performed 
with equal propriety by either sex, there are oth- 
ers which clearly belong to one or the other ex- 
clusively, and which can never become the com- 
mon province of both. This separation of duties 
and offices is a plain dictate of common sense, 
and has obtained in all ages and in every, condi- 
tion of society. Among the rudest nations, the 
business of war and the chase, and all the more 
athletic; offices, have always been assumed exclu- 
sively by the male sex. As men became more 
enlightened and society more refined, a nicer 
and more complete separation of offices and em- 
ployments became established. The sterner, 
more arduous and more hazardous were by com- 



212 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

mon consent assigned to man ; while to woman 
was given the lighter, more quiet and more deli- 
cate offices. Her vocation is not less important 
or less honorable, but more refined and more 
domestic. Hers are the softer and gentler du- 
ties; in her own province she is an angel — the 
pride and ornament of the race — the sacred re- 
pository of all that is virtuous and lovely. But 
when she abandons her own proper sphere, and 
engages in those employments which properly 
belong to man, she disparages herself and tar- 
nishes the fair escutcheon of her sex. And we 
are obliged to believe that nothing better than a 
morbid ambition, or unchastened cupidity, could 
induce competent individuals of our own sex to 
become teachers in schools designed to prepare 
females to practise medicine and surgery. They 
may teach the principles of medicine correctly, 
but they are encouraging aspirations that can 
never be realized, and inducing hopes which must 
end in disappointment. Their fair listeners are 
out of their own proper element, have been led 
astray in mistaken paths, are seeking laurels on 
forbidden ground, and ostracising themselves 
from the glory of womanhood. 



FEMALE PHYSICIANS. 213 

To a female, a medical degree or a military 
commission can be nothing more than a graceless 
memento, and very few respectable females will 
aspire to such honors. Females have sometimes 
immolated themselves on the altar of their coun- 
try, and died for the benefit of mankind ; but no 
such sacrifice is required in the present case — 
the profession is already amply supplied in all 
its departments, and its irksome, laborious and 
responsible duties should not be cast upon the 
gentler sex. If females do occasionally succeed 
in the practice of medicine, as one in a thousand 
may, such are only very rare exceptions to a 
general rule. Similar exceptions have been wit- 
nessed in other vocations. Females in disguise 
have acted the hero in the army or navy ; but 
every such instance, unless it arose from neces- 
sity, deserved censure rather than commendation. 
And if a female should obtain a lucrative prac- 
tice and acquire a fortune, even then, her posi- 
tion in society would not be an enviable one. She 
cannot be respected as a member of a profession 
to which she aspires to belong. Unbidden and 
unwelcome she has thrust herself into an associ- 
19 



214 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

ation which she cannot honor, and which will not 
honor her. She has expatriated herself from her 
own sex, and is looked upon as an erring sister, 
who has gone astray from the fold of woman- 
hood, seeking fruits in forbidden fields. The en- 
dearing ties of sisterhood have been severed, and 
she has forfeited the gentle courtesies and ame- 
nities of the sterner sex. She appears a mon- 
ster in the garb of a female, a nondescript, a 
being sui generis. 

When a female resolves to become a doctor 
in medicine, she must also resolve to violate a 
law of her being, and vow perpetual celibacy. 
She may shut her eyes and stop her ears to all 
the pleasures of social intercourse, and look upon 
mankind and the world with stoical indifference. 
It cannot be otherwise. The mother cannot 
leave her nursing infant at the hour of midnight, 
and launch out amid the howling tempest to at- 
tend the sick. She must not expose herself to 
the thousand hardships and dangers that are in- 
cident to a life of medical practice. These are 
duties which do not belong to her, and should 
not be expected of her. The female arm was 






FEMALE PHYSICIANS. 215 

never intended to wield the sledge or swing the 
scythe, nor her hand to grasp the dissecting 
knife, the trephine or the gorget. In her own 
sacred home, amid her domestic duties, or in her 
own parlor surrounded by groups of friends, or 
abroad as business or pleasure or inclination 
may dictate ; whenever we behold her in her own 
province, she shines the ornament and glory of 
the race. But when she enters the foetid labo- 
ratory o£ the anatomist, and plunges her hands 
into the gore of dead men, she loses all her femi- 
nine loveliness, and appears like a fallen angel, 
an object of universal horror and disgust. 



216 QUACKERY UXMASKED. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

INDIAN MEDICINE. 

The following is a part of an address which 
the author read at a meeting of the Bristol Dis- 
trict Medical Society. 

Among the thousand popular delusions upon 
the subject of medicine, the belief in Indian skill 
is by no means the least. It lias come to be al- 
most universally understood that the American 
Indians, previous to their intercourse with the 
whites, possessed a knowledge of sovereign re- 
medies for all diseases ; that these specifics, when 
employed either as prophylactics, or curatives, 
always had the desired effect; and it has been 
supposed that to this cause they owed their vigor 
— their exemption from a large share of the dis- 
eases found in civilized and refined communi- 
ties — their freedom from the decrepitude of age, 
and their longevity. The force of this popular 
error seems to increase as the Indian and his 



INDIAN MEDICINE. 217 

history decline and pass away. The mysterious 
obscurity which hangs over this people, and is 
every day burying them deeper and deeper in 
oblivion, tends to increase the superstition and 
magnify the wonder. Yet there is no need of 
any mistake upon this subject. A little attention 
to the history of the first settlements in America, 
will show that the Indians neither had, nor pre- 
tended to have, any such medical knowledge. If 
they had used any rational means for the reco- 
very of their sick, or possessed any such skill, 
the sharp-sighted settlers would not have been 
slow to learn or put them in practice. The first 
Europeans who came to America found the vast 
wilderness inhabited by a race of red men, who, 
in their personal appearance, and in their social 
and domestic habits, were different from all other 
men. They were in a perfectly savage state, 
and appeared never to have had intercourse with 
any other race of men. They had no knowledge 
of anything except what pertained to the art of 
war, or the means of subsistence. Confined by 
no local attachments, their numerous tribes mi- 
grated hither and thither as their necessities or 
19* 



218 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

inclinations prompted. Free from all the con- 
taminations and pollutions which, find their way 
into civilized and refined communities, they en- 
joyed a high degree of health and vigor, and were 
subject to few diseases. They were liable to the 
accidents of war and the chase ; they sometimes 
suffered from hunger, and sometimes from sur- 
feit; they were liable to scurvy and some inflam- 
matory diseases, and sometimes fatal epidemics, of 
the character of which we have no certain know- 
ledge, prevailed among them ; but it is certain 
that some of the most loathsome, and many of 
the most fatal diseases which prevail among us, 
were unknown to them. As we found them they 
were a vigorous, powerful, athletic, people, capa- 
ble of severe labor and long endurance. The In- 
dian grasped the bow with the strength of a more 
than Roman arm, and launched the arrow to its 
mark with a force and precision which defied all 
competition. No pale face could roam the for- 
est, ford the stream, or war with the bear like 
him. 

These extraordinary physical powers were in 
some measure incident to them as a race every 



INDIAN MEDICINE. 219 

way adapted to a savage condition, and in part 
were the result of their habits of life. From 
their earliest moments to their latest age, their 
lives consisted of one continued scene of savage 
exposure and hardship. Of course they had few 
invalids among them. Those who could endure 
the hardening, lived and became mighty hunters 
and brave warriors ; and such as could not, died 
off. They had no physicians, no clergymen, nor 
special artisans among them. They had no 
written language, and cultivated no science. 
They believed in the Great Spirit — they heard 
his voice in the thunder — saw his bow in the 
cloud, and his arrows in the lightning — and all 
the means which they employed for the restora- 
tion of their sick consisted of superstitious incan- 
tations, with rude invocations to the Great Spirit. 
In 1623, Massasoit, who was Sachem of the 
Wampanoags, was severely sick, and supposed 
by the Indians to be dying. Mr. Winslow, a 
deputy from the whites, found the chief in a criti- 
cal condition, and but just alive. A multitude of 
Indians of both sexes stood around, practising 



220 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 

their charms and uttering loud moans and wild 
invocations, but no one gave him medicine or 
cordial. In this situation the Sachem must soon 
have died, had not Mr. Winslow taken upon him- 
self to administer medicine and cordials, and 
such food as the sick man required, by which 
treatment he soon recovered. 

From this, it appears very evident that thi3 
tribe had no knowledge of medicinal remedies, 
for, if they had had, they would have used them 
for the relief of their Sachem. Soon after this 
continent began to be settled by the whites, it 
was found that a mortal epidemic was spreading 
among the Indians, by which they died in heaps 
— the young and the old together. Whole fa- 
milies and whole tribes perished, and yet they 
employed no rational means either as prophy- 
lactics or curatives. But believing that the Great 
Spirit had become angry with them, they resort- 
ed to charms and incantations, by which they 
hoped to appease his wrath. Such has always 
been the practice with savage nations everywhere, 
and many of the half civilized have done little 
more. 



INDIAN MEDICINE. 221 

The Egyptians had a written language and 
laws, and had made considerable advances in 
many mechanical arts — had reduced astronomy 
to a science, and had built the Pyramids, long be- 
fore they began to employ any rational means 
for the cure of their sick. Their practice con 
sisted wholly of superstitious rites and ceremo- 
nies. One of their earliest medicinal remedies 
was the onion. This was not given to the pa- 
tient to swallow, but was suspended over his 
door, placed upon his bed, or hung about his 
neck. The ceremonies and manipulations were 
performed by the priests, and this remedy, thus 
employed, was thought to be so efficacious that 
the onion came to be regarded as an object of 
religious worship, and enrolled in the catalogue 
of Egyptian deities ; and so great was their vene- 
ration for the onion, that, even after the patient 
was dead, they sometimes placed it in his clenched 
hand, and embalmed it with his body. Not long 
since, one was taken from the hand of a mummy, 
where it had probably remained for more than 
two thousand years, and was afterwards planted 
and found to grow. This would seem to be al- 



222 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

most sufficient to satisfy Egyptian credulity of 
the immortality of their supposed deity. 

The condition of the American Indians, when 
first discovered by Europeans, was the most per- 
fect savage state ever known, and their history 
affords ample proof that, previous to their inter- 
course with the whites, they had never thought 
of using medicinal remedies for the restoration 
of their sick. Then, whence comes this al- 
most universal belief in Indian skill ? I answer, 
it has been brought about by numerous fraudu- 
lent schemes contrived by numerous Americans 
to dupe a credulous public. Crafty knaves have 
found that the American people, with all their 
boasted intelligence, are easily imposed upon 
by empirical pretensions. The ignorant old 
squaw has been applied to for medicine, until her 
vanity and cupidity have made her a doctress. 
Stimulated by her example, the Africano-Indian 
and the Anglo-African have embarked in the 
same enterprise, and although profoundly igno- 
rant of everything pertaining to the subject of 
medicine, they find plenty of employment, and 
their apparent ignorance is looked upon as evi- 



INDIAN MEDICINE. 223 

dence of their knowledge of the deep mysteries 
of Indian medicine. But the insatiable cupidity 
of the Yankee would not long allow the colored 
race the sole enjoyment of so profitable a field. 
Indian Syrups, Indian Balsams, Indian Pills, and 
numerous other so-called Indian remedies, were 
contrived and manufactured by peculent white 
men — foisted upon the public and readily sold. 
The bait, glossed over with Indian varnish, was 
readily swallowed. The silly purchasers sup- 
posed they were taking nothing but genuine In- 
dian preparations, whilst the proprietors were 
themselves astonished and delighted at the suc- 
cess of their nefarious rpoductions, and the press 
for ample pecuniary consideration has been 
brought to lend its aid to confirm the falsehood 
and sanctify the fraud. The honest Indian scorns 
all these schemes, and is never found among the 
motley crew of Indian doctors. It is made up 
not of genuine Indians, but of negroes, mulattoes, 
and, meanest of all, some white men, who have 
stolen the Indian livery for their own unhallowed 
purposes. Perhaps these miscreants may some- 
times be found to possess some smattering of 



224 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

medical knowledge, but it is certain that all that 
they do know, be it more or less, has been gain- 
ed from the white people, and not a particle of 
it from any Indian source. And perhaps some 
of the preparations sold in the shops for Indian 
medicines may not be wholly worthless, but the 
pretension that they are genuine Indian remedies 
is a fraud. Every one of them has been con- 
trived and put forth by some mercenary white 
man, who, although he may have made a fortune 
by it, is nevertheless himself a knave. 

Quackery in any form is always an evil, but it 
may be only a partial evil, to result in universal 
good. It has in a few instances brought to light 
valuable remedies, and it may tend to correct 
and admonish legitimate medicine. But the mo- 
tives which produce it are always mercenary, al- 
though ignorance and mistakes may sometimes 
slightly palliate the crime, yet an inordinate de- 
sire for gain, without sufficient strength of moral 
principle to control the means, may always be 
regarded as the moving cause. Quackery always 
has existed, and no doubt always will : it is a 
moral disease, which assumes a great variety of 



INDIAN MEDICINE. 225 

types and forms, that are constantly changing 
yet never become extinct, but as if by transmi- 
gration, when the cheat disappears in one in- 
stance, it immediately shows itself in another, 
and there is always a sufficiency in variety and 
profusion to satisfy the tastes and appetites of 
all classes. The learned and the ignorant, the 
high and the low, the rich and the poor, all have 
it brought to their very doors, and served up and 
seasoned to their liking, and were we to judge by 
the greediness with which these precious morsels 
are devoured, one might readily conclude that, 
of a truth, " there is as much pleasure in being 
cheated as to cheat." 

In the history of the world there are moral 
and social, as well as geological epochs. We 
live in the mercenary period, and quackery grows 
and flourishes now as mushrooms and ferns did 
in the carboniferous period. What is to be the 
next superabundant strata which shall swallow 
up the present towering stalks of moral ferns, 
we have no means of knowing; but let us hope 
that when that time does come, no out-croppings 
of present quackery shall remain visible. It is 
20 



226 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

not my business at this time to attempt to clear 
off from the Indian character all the aspersions 
that have been cast upon it ; but in justice to 
them, I am bound to say that not a single item 
of modern quackery is justly chargeable to the 
aborigines. 



ECLECTICISM. 227 



CHAPTER XIX. 



ECLECTICISM. 



There has sprung up within a few years, in 
the United States, a class of medical practition- 
ers who style themselves Eclectics. The term 
is of very ancient date, and appears to have been 
first employed by a class of pagan divines who 
lived long before the Christian era. The word 
is of Greek origin, and signifies to select, or 
choose, and was supposed to be characteristic of 
a sect who compiled their religious system by 
picking out something from each of the religious 
systems then in vogue. What became of that 
sect it is not our business to inquire. All we 
need to know, is, that Archigenes, a Syrian, who 
was an empiric, and lived about the time of the 
Christian era, borrowed the term and made it 
the foundation of his scheme. This sect may 
therefore lay claim to considerable antiquity, al- 
though we believe that the links of its history 
have been sometimes widely separated. From 



228 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

its origin to the present time it has ever been 
regarded as empirical — it lias never prevailed 
to any very great extent, or embraced among its 
advocates many talented individuals. Sometimes 
the sect has become nearly extinct, and again it 
has sprung up anew and solicited public patron- 
age. There are now several small institutions 
in the United States which are supported by that 
sect, but most of those who practise under that 
name are men who have never had any thorough 
medical education, but who have wrongfully as- 
sumed its responsibilities without being properly 
qualified to fulfil its requirements. 

Now if Eclecticism was, or could be, what the 
term implies, we would not make the slightest 
objection to it, except on account of the cogno- 
men in which it appears. We would never ob- 
ject to the use of the very best medical means. 
The regular profession always endeavors to do 
that, and is continually increasing and improving 
her resources for that purpose. As fast as Bo- 
tany, Chemistry aud Materia Medica develop 
new and improved agents, she instantly selects 
and employs such as are found, upon sufficient 
trial, to be important. No class of physicians 



ECLECTICISM. 229 

can do any more than this ; and if Eclecticism 
did all this, we would cheerfully extend to her 
the hand of fellowship, and rejoice to labor with 
her in the great cause of genuine philanthropy. 

But this is not the character of that Eclecticism 
which we see moving around us. A very large 
majority of that class of practitioners are igno- 
rant of the rudiments of medical science — men 
who were bred to some other employment, but, 
not contented to remain in their own appropriate 
condition, aspired to be gods of some kind, and 
therefore left some honorable vocation which 
gave them employment and support, arid surrep- 
titiously entered the arena of medicine. Many 
of these men commenced their career as Thom- 
sonians, then became Botanic doctors, and at 
length, in the course of their transmigrations, 
have reached Eclecticism. How soon they will 
undergo another metamorphosis, and become 
Homoeopathists, or Chrono-Thermalists, it is im- 
possible to say ; but neither they, nor the public, 
will be likely to gain or lose much by their fre- 
quent mutations. 

It is said that there are some educated and 
20* 



230 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

quite respectable men who belong to this class. 
Then these men are in poor company. Why do 
they not pursue an honorable course, instead of 
giving their countenance and support to a class 
of practitioners who they must know are every 
way incompetent and unworthy ? Why place 
themselves at the head of a column of such de- 
testable recruits ? If they bear the name of Al- 
exander, they should endeavor to conduct like 
him. 

As has been already stated, eclectics profess 
to compile their system of therapeutics by select- 
ing from all the medical schemes in vogue such 
things as they believe to be proper ; that is, they 
take a portion from scientific medicine, another 
portion from Thomsonism, another from Ho- 
moeopathy, another from Hydropathy, another 
from Isopathy, another from Chrono-Thermal- 
ism ; and so go on to select, from every 
variety of quackery, something to make a kind 
of bouquet, which they appear to think should 
be agreeable to all classes. But how, and by 
whom, is the selection to be made ? Men who 
are profoundly ignorant of medical science, sit 



ECLECTICISM. 231 

in judgment upon all medical means, and schemes, 
and proceed to select the right from the wrong, 
and the true from the false. As well might a 
blind man undertake to select the finest pictures 
from a promiscuous number of paintings. The 
idea is preposterous — no man can be a compe- 
tent judge in any department of business or sci- 
ence with which he is not thoroughly acquainted ; 
and if without such knowledge he attempts to 
make selections, he is quite as likely to do wrong 
as right, and is ever unreliable. Eclecticism 
is a kind of coat of many colors, which the wear- 
ers seem to suppose should please everybody. 
Like some politicians, they love all the dear peo- 
ple, and are in favor of all parties, and like them 
they deserve the confidence of none. 

There are some practitioners, who, although 
they are not professedly eclectic, yet endeavor to 
ride two or more hobbies at the same time. 
They can practise "both ways," or several ways, 
and ask the patient to indicate the method by 
which he will be treated — 'tis all the same 
to them — they only wish to know just what the 
patient wants, and they are ready to do his 



232 QUACKEEY UNMASKED. 

work. They can administer emetics and cathar- 
tics, or give decillionth attenuations of anything 
desired; and if thought best, they can apply the 
wet sheet, or give lobelia. 

What if, when I give my watch to the gold- 
smith to be cleaned, he should ask me by what sys- 
tem I wish to have it treated — if I will have the 
dirt washed out with cold water, or warm water ; 
or shall it be shook out, or blown out, or steam- 
ed out ; or shall he lay it upon its back and wait 
until its own gravity brings it out ? What would 
be thought of such an eclectic goldsmith ? 

All the varieties of quackery appear to be run- 
ning a race, and each one pretends to be ahead 
of every other. Eclectics talk of nothing so 
much as progress. If we may believe them, all 
their means are the very newest of the new — 
they are rushing onward with the speed of a lo- 
comotive, and are outstripping and overturning 
all other systems. They sail over Homoeopathy, 
and Chrono-Thermalism, which they consider as 
sunken hulks whose standing masts only serve 
to indicate the rocks or shoals upon which they 
have stranded. The established medical schools 



ECLECTICISM. 233 

they consider as antiquated affairs — pyramids, 
indeed, but containing nothing but putrid mum- 
mies. But eclectics, instead of being ahead of 
what they choose to call the old system, are far 
behind it. They are only gleaners, and poor at 
that. They call themselves eclectics, which sig- 
nifies persons who cull, or pick out from some- 
thing already prepared ; therefore, if they are 
true to their name, they wait for others to pre- 
pare the material from which they are to purloin 
whatever suits them. They are not pioneers, 
but capricious followers. They originate no- 
thing, but are unthankful borrowers and imita- 
tors. All the knowledge and skill that they do 
possess, has been learned, as the parrot learns to 
talk, by mocking others. 

It is no matter whether the physician is a 
member of this or that medical society — it is 
no matter in what school he has been educated 
— if he pretend to practise two or more ways 
to suit his patients. It is evident that neither 
the patient nor his friends can ordinarily be pro- 
per judges of the most suitable means to be made 
use of in any given case j for if they were thus 



234 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 

qualified, there would be no occasion for employ- 
ing a physician. Is it not extremely preposter- 
ous, therefore, for the physician to ask his patient 
by what means he will be treated ? Or, is there 
no material difference between rational medicine 
and every kind of quackery ? Are they all alike 
good or bad ? Must we come at last to the mor- 
tifying conclusion that all the labors, researches 
and observations of physicians, for two thousand 
years, have brought forth nothing of any more 
value than the vilest nostrum ? Can the physi- 
cian be honest who tells his patient that all ways, 
or any two opposite ways, are alike good ? When 
the house is on fire, is it equally good to cast 
water or turpentine on the flames ? When the 
patient is suffering from obstinate constipation, 
is it equally good to give aperients or astrin- 
gents ? Men who pretend to such principles as 
these are either profoundly ignorant themselves. 
or design to deceive others ; and in either case 
they must be dangerous practitioners. 

Some of these men may effect their purpose by 
a double imposition; and whilst they pretend to 
remove alvine obstructions by astringents, they 






ECLECTICISM. 235 

add to their alum or lead, jalapine or elaterin. 
The public should learn that neither in politics 
nor medicine does any reliable man attempt to 
ride two horses of different tempers at the same 
time. Hahnemann himself pronounces the most 
severe denunciations against such as practise 
both ways — sometimes using the homoeopathic, 
and sometimes the allopathic medicines. 



236 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER XX. 



CHR0N0-THERMALI3M. 



Chrono-Thermalism is a recent form of medi- 
cal quackery. The originator of this sect was 
Samuel Dicksox, who was born in Edinburgh in 
1802. He appears to have studied law some, 
and medicine some, and to have taken the degree 
of M.D. at Glasgow, at the age of about thirty. 
In 1836 he published his first Sketches of Chro- 
no-Thermalism. In 18-40 he commenced lectur- 
ing in London upon his new scheme. He soon 
drew around him great numbers anxious to find 
something new to feed their curiosity upon. 
His converts petitioned Parliament and ob- 
tained an act of incorporation for a Chrono- 
Thermal College. This novelty soon found ad- 
vocates in France, Germany, Sweden, Prussia, 
and Denmark. The scheme was first introduced 
into the United States about twenty years ago. 
by Dr. William Turner, of the State of Xew 



CHRONOTHERM ALISM. 2 3 7 

York. The savans of that sect inform us that 
the characteristic appellation by which they 
choose to be known, is formed by connecting two 
Greek words: Chronos, meaning period, or time; 
and Therma, which signifies heat. These hitched 
together, with the addition of ism, make Chrono- 
Thermalism. 

Their peculiar doctrines are, that disease is a 
unit, and that the human race is subject to only 
one disease, and that is Ague, or Intermittent 
Fever ; that every other morbid manifesta- 
tion is only another condition of the same affec- 
tion ; that the three stages observed in intermit- 
tent fever, if not so obvious in other forms, are 
nevertheless always present; that no morbid con- 
dition can exist without them ; and that the proxi- 
mate cause of disease is u a change of motion in 
the atoms of the organization, accompanied al- 
ways by a change of temperature" The first 
stage of disease they call Depression, the second 
Accession, and the third Reaction. In the first, 
they suppose the organic atoms to be in a state 
of negative electricity; the second is the positive 
state ; and the third is produced by the strug- 
21 



238 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

glings of the powers of life against the disease. 
They make use of many fine-spun theories, drawn 
from analogy, in support of their hypothetical 
doctrines, and at last they arrive at the conclu- 
sion, that the power of all medicinal agents is 
one and the same; and that this power is no- 
thing more nor less than electricity, moving the 
body in some of its parts or atoms, either in- 
wards or outwards. And by the law of elective 
affinity they assure us that their medicine is di- 
rectly attracted by the part of the system most 
affected, and by moving its organic atoms in the 
right direction everything is soon set to rights 
and the patient cured. If it is asked by what 
means are their cures wrought, I answer in their 
own language: " Chrono-Thermalism rejects no 
earthly agent but the bleeding lancet, the leech, 
and the scarificator." According to their theory, 
all medicines possess electrical powers, and the 
beauty of their practice consists in using the 
right remedy at the exact moment, so that by 
its electrical force it may hurl the organic atoms 
from an abnormal to their normal condition. 
Hahnemann declared that the world was in igno- 



CHR0N0-THERM ALISM. 239 

ranee and darkness until he came, and that Psora, 
or the common Itch, was the parent of nearly all 
chronic diseases. And now the advocates of 
Chrono-Thermalism tell us that the medical 
world was in thick darkness until Dickson came, 
and informed mankind that the human race is lia- 
ble to only one disease, and that disease is al- 
ways Ague, or Intermittent Fever. 

Like every other species of quackery, Chrono- 
Thermalism boasts loudly of its unparalleled suc- 
cess, sets up the most dismal howlings against 
the regular profession, and declares that not 
many years will pass away ere the doctrine and 
practice of Chrono-Thermalism will become the 
dominant system throughout the civilized world. 
It asserts that if the regular faculty shall refuse 
to adopt their principles, it will be weighed in 
the scales of an enlightened and advanced public 
sentiment and found wanting, and that Mene, 
Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, will be written upon 
their college walls. If we may believe them, 
they have cast down their rod and it has become 
a, serpent, which like Aaron's of old is to swallow 
ap all others. But, judging from present appear- 



24:0 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

ances, we are inclined to think that their hope3 
are not soon to be realized; — already its elec- 
tric force appears to be nearly exhausted, and 
the time cannot be far distant when of all their 
proud schemes nothing will be left but the 
" baseless fabric of a vision." Sometimes frag- 
ments may be saved from empirical wrecks that 
may be turned to some good account, but we can 
see nothing in all this that is worth preserving. 



NATURAL BONE-SETTERS. 241 



CHAPTER XXI. 



NATURAL BONE-SETTERS. 



There are men of a certain class, who, for 
aught I know, may be found in every part of the 
world, who are called Bone-setters. Some of 
these men possess a smattering of anatomical 
knowledge, and others none at all. Some have 
served as dressers in hospitals — some have 
practised as farriers ; and others, even the most 
celebrated, have had no opportunities whatever 
of acquiring medical knowledge, and are pro- 
foundly ignorant of the first principles of anato- 
my and surgery. Some have acquired fortunes 
by their practice, and even females have in some 
instances become celebrated bone-setters. In 
most instances those who profess this peculiar 
skill do not pretend to have acquired it by study 
or other legitimate means, but hold that it is a 
natural endowment or family gift. And this ab- 
surd notion is extensively entertained by the 
21* 



242 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

public. In Old England, the Tailors and the 
Whitworths are among the most eminent; in 
New England, the Sweets are the most celebra- 
ted. It is believed that there are, at the present 
time, about a dozen of that name who claim to 
possess the skill which they have inherited from 
a common ancestor, who lived about one hundred 
years ago in the town of South Kingston, in the 
State of Rhode Island. The ancestor of this 
race of Bone-setters was an illiterate man and 
had no knowledge of medicine or surgery, and 
his children and grandchildren have ever conti- 
nued in the same state of plebeian ignorance. 
Yet notwithstanding this, the public pertina- 
ciously sustain them in their pretensions to an 
innate family endowment. That some of these 
men have sometimes, by accident, reduced dislo- 
cations, I am not disposed to doubt; but having 
no knowledge of anatomy, they can have no sur- 
gical skill, and their success can have been no 
greater than might be acquired by any resolute 
and reckless individuals. 

The public cannot be made to understand that 
bone-setting is purely a mechanical operation. 



NATURAL BONE-SETTERS. 243 

for the proper performance of which, anatomical 
and surgical knowledge are indispensable. Every- 
body knows that no one is competent to repair 
a watch, or other machine, unless he has a full 
knowledge of all its parts and their connections ; 
but the public appear to believe that an indivi- 
dual may have sufficient skill to repair the human 
frame, without any thorough knowledge of its 
construction. They seem to suppose that bone- 
setting is a kind of talismanic process, which does 
not come within the rules of scientific or me- 
chanical operations. In consequence of this un- 
founded opinion, good surgeons have often been 
set aside to make room for some one who bore 
the magical name of Sweet. If any one attempts 
to convince the bystanders that their confidence 
is misplaced, he is met with reports of cases 
which in their view overthrow all arguments and 
explanations. 

Take a case in point. A man bruises his foot 
or sprains his ancle. A surgeon is called, and 
informs the patient that there is no fracture nor 
dislocation, and advises a proper course of treat- 
ment. The patient continues lame, and perhaps 



244 



QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



a second or third physician is called, and con- 
firms the diagnosis of the first ; but his officious 
neighbors will never let him alone — they assure 
him that there must be some "bone out/' and 
advise him by all means to send for one of the 
"natural bone-setters," lest by trusting educated 
surgeons he should become a cripple for life. 
Some one of this family of doctors is brought, 
and the neighbors of all ages, sexes and condi- 
tions are soon collected to witness the perform- 
ance. The doctor is sure to find one or more 
bones out. When he has made sufficient prepa- 
ration, he seizes the limb of his patient, pulls and 
twists it in all manner of ways, until the anxious 
bystanders hear it snap and crack, and the pa- 
tient is fully satisfied that enough has been done. 
He is now told that all is right, and that he can 
and must walk ; he makes the attempt, and finds 
he can. The Bone-setter exults in his achieve- 
ment, and all the bystanders vouch for the skil- 
ful performance of the wonderful operation. 
" All the physicians about," say they, " were 
called, but none of them knew that any bone was 
out; Dr. Sweet set six or eight in the foot, or 



NATURAL BONE-SETTERS. 245 

perhaps four or five about the knee joint. There 
can be no mistake about it — they heard and 
counted every snap, as bone after bone returned 
to its place. " 

Perhaps few if any cases have ever been known, 
where one of that class of Bone-setters has been 
called and found no bone out of place. Many of 
their most remarkable cures have been accom- 
plished several weeks, or perhaps months, after 
the injury. It is well known that in many cases 
of sprains, after the active inflammation has sub- 
sided, friction and passive motion are some of 
the best means that can be made use of — and 
this explains the modus operandi of many of 
their cures. A man has kept his foot upon a 
pillow a fortnight, and thinks he cannot move it. 
The Bone-setter extends and flexes, twists and 
rotates it, until the patient can endure it no long- 
er ; and thinking that all must certainly be 
right after so much agony, he attempts to use 
the limb — his morbid sensibility has been over- 
come by the manipulations — he puts his foot to 
the floor, and, to his own astonishment, he finds 
he can walk. He believes himself cured, and 
therefore in due time gets well. 



246 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

Job Sweet, the original ancestor of this fami- 
ly of Bone-setters, as I have said before, was an 
illiterate man. At the time when he commenced 
bone-setting in South Kingston, the town must 
have been thinly inhabited — probably its physi- 
cians had not much knowledge of anatomv and 
no great skill in surgery, and might not be 
much better qualified to operate in cases of frac- 
ture or dislocation, than unprofessional men 
guided alone by their own common sense. Un- 
der such circumstances, the original operator may 
sometimes have reduced dislocations, and have 
become in his time the best Bone-setter in all 
that region. 

The history of the Sweet 98 entially the 

history of all professed Bone-setters, and will 
answer, mutatis mutandis, for various other names 
and places. Their operations are of the hocus 
pocus kind, and the deception is generally tangi- 
ble, and may be shown by ocular demonstration. 
Yet notwithstanding all this, the masses shut 
their eyes and stop their ears against any 
exposure of the ignorance or fraud of this 
class of impostors. I am told that the Sweets 
have gained a wide reputation, and that many 



NATURAL BONE-SETTERS. 247 

worthy men have confidence in their skill. So 
the tar water of Bishop Berkley, the weapon 
ointment of Hildanus, and the metallic trac- 
tors of Perkins, gained a higher and wider 
celebrity. So Boyle held that the thigh bone 
of an executed criminal was a specific in dys- 
entery, Bacon believed in charms and amulets, 
and Martin Luther in the efficacy of toads. 



248 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE PRESS. 

If I were asked what single cause contribu- 
ted most to lead astray the public mind upon the 
subject of medicine and promote criminal quack- 
ery, I should answer, The Press. I think I may 
say, without fear of contradiction, that in no 
age or country has the nostrum business been 
carried to so great an extent as in the United 
States at the present time. Our free schools, 
of which every American ought to be proud, 
where all, who will, may acquire the substantial 
rudiments of a thorough education, are often so 
improved as to give the pupils only a smattering 
knowledge of a variety of subjects. By such 
means, many a man is prepared to become u Jack 
at all trades," and ready to embark in almost 
any enterprise that appears encouraging. A very 
little medical knowledge, and a great deal of 
self-conceit, prepare him for a quack doctor 



THE PRESS. 249 

whenever circumstances encourage it. If he sees 
Brandreth making a fortune with pills, he, too, 
can make pills ; or perhaps he knows of some 
other panacea, in the form of balsam, syrup or 
plaster, which is far better. And so long as 
there is money to be made by this nefarious busi- 
ness, there are thousands prepared to embark 
in it. But nothing can be done without the 
Press ; — enterprise must stop here, and the skill 
of the wizard be hushed in darkness, unless the 
Press will publish it to the world. But the 
American Press allows no man's light to be hid- 
den under a bushel, so long as he has the neces- 
sary means to bring it out, and always manifests 
a readiness to embrace any cause that has suffi- 
cient pecuniary merits. In all other respects 
the managers of the Press appear about as un- 
scrupulous as the engines themselves. 

I would by no means abridge the largest liber- 
ty of the Press, consistent with the public good. 
In the United States, the newspaper Press is 
bound by no rules, and under no restrictions ex- 
cept such as arise from self-interest. In this 
condition, when strongly urged by mercenary 
• 22 



250 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

considerations, it may be made to labor to dis- 
seminate falsehood, contaminate the public mind, 
and spread delusion and error over the face of 
society, to the positive injury of the great mass 
of people ; and this is the obvious effect of all 
the newspaper advertisements of quack practi- 
tioners and quack medicines. The public gene- 
rally are not aware that the newspaper Press is 
everywhere thus subsidized and suborned, and 
therefore are easily deceived, It is supposed 
that there are about three thousand newspapers 
in the United States, and most of them ad- 
vertise more or less nostrums; and I think we 
may safely say, that such advertisements are the 
chief support of at least one-half of the whole 
number of papers. The gross amount paid an- 
nually for such advertisements almost exceeds 
belief. There are many printing establishments 
in our large cities, each of which receives annu- 
ally several thousand dollars for this service ; 
and this is everywhere considered the most pro- 
fitable part of the newspaper business. Xot 
long ago, a single illiterate quack, in the city of 
Boston, paid one daily paper three thousand six 



THE PRESS. 251 

hundred dollars a year for his advertisements. 
It is impossible to ascertain the whole amount 
paid annually in the United States for quack ad- 
vertisements. If we add to the ordinary news- 
paper advertisements, the cost of bills, circulars, 
almanacs and other gratuitous publications that 
are thrown broadcast over the country, thick as 
autumnal leaves, the aggregate will probably ex- 
ceed a million of dollars. It is said that the fa- 
mous Dr. Brandreth often paid annually nearly 
one-tenth of that sum. The Swaims, Moffats, 
Townsends, Wrights, and a host of others, have 
probably paid, severally, nearly or quite as much, 
and the renowned Perry Davis has not probably 
been outdone by any one of the class. These 
and many others have amassed princely fortunes 
by the sale of nostrums. Encouraged by their 
success, great numbers of others are pursuing a 
similar course^ and are reaping the same golden 
harvest. And all this is done because the Ame- 
rican Press is under no legal or moral restraint, 
and is ever ready, for money, to aid impostors 
in deceiving and defrauding the public. By these 
means ; men with a smattering of medical know- 



252 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 

ledge, or none at all, often become rich, whilst 
many learned and worthy men remain poor for 
no other crime than being honest. 

The enormous sum paid for advertising, is only 
one item in the whole amount which is paid an- 
nually by the people of the United States for 
quack medicines. There are many other large 
items. The ignorant charlatan, unable to write 
his own advertisements, has recourse to some 
professed expert, whose well-disciplined imagi- 
nation is ever ready to conjure up such pompous 
falsehoods as are best calculated to gull the pub- 
lic. These expert fabricators must be paid libe- 
rally, because quackery would make but a mea- 
gre appearance without them. Now, if we add 
to the items already enumerated, the numerous 
other incidental expenses that are incurred by 
the manufacture, transportation and sale of such 
preparations, the gross amount will probably 
exceed ten millions annually. And what essen- 
tial benefit do the people of the United States 
om this enormous tax? Viewed in the 

Mh favorable light, it is no better than a total 
loss to the consumers. In some rare instances 



THE PRESS. 253 

patients may have been temporarily benefited, 
but in a large majority of cases no essential good 
lias been done, and often the very reverse lias 
happened. Brandreth's pills have occasionally 
been serviceable as a cathartic, but in many in- 
stances the dose has been repeated until a habit 
has been established which required their con- 
tinual employment, so that hundreds of individu- 
als have been doomed to perpetual constipation, 
with all its incidental miseries, by the injudicious 
use of these pills. If the article is some pre- 
tended Balsam of Wild Cherry, Cherry Pectoral, 
or other cough preparation, containing opium and 
antimony in disguise, as nearly all nostrums of 
that class do, the patient is often essentially in- 
jured, and perhaps hastened to his final exit, 
whilst a momentary narcotism induces him to 
suppose he is being cured ; and the general effect 
of all such preparations is to create a habit that 
makes their continual repetition necessary. 

The public good does not require the sale of 

a single nostrum. Leaving the cost out of the 

account, the mischief which these things produce 

far exceeds all the benefit that can be derived 

22* 



254 QUACKEEY UNMASKED. 

from them ; and if the whole mass of this trash, 
with all the lying publications now filling the 
shelves and counters of ten thousand shops, could 
be collected into one grand colossal pile for one 
immense bonfire, the day of the conflagration 
would deserve to be celebrated as a jubilee 
throughout all time. But the public have so 
long been accustomed to the use of articles of 
this sort, that many consider them almost indis- 
pensable. It is thought to be a matter of pru- 
dence and economy to have some of the more 
common articles ready for use in any emergen- 
cy, by which the delay and expense of calling a 
physician may be obviated. If the sick or their 
friends could always understand the nature of 
the diseases which they attempt to treat, what 
remedies were indicated, and how to use them, 
then certainly there would be no need of employ- 
ing physicians ; but this knowledge cannot be ac- 
quired without years of study and observation, 
and therefore unprofessional men cannot be sup- 
posed to possess any considerable amount of it. 
There are some common articles, such as castor 
oil, and a few others, that may safely be put into 



THE PRESS. 255 

the hands of the common people ; but all active 
compounds should be excluded from the nursery, 
or labelled, Noli me tangere. 

There may be different opinions respecting the 
extent to which domestic medication should be 
carried, but there can be no question that a good 
medicine is better than a poor one. Whatever 
medicines are thus employed, should always be 
of the safest and most reliable kind — such as 
long experience and the great body of educated 
physicians have found useful. The United States 
Dispensatory contains formulas sufficient for all 
ordinary purposes ; and if these were carefully 
prepared by competent apothecaries, and kept 
ready for use, they would be far better than the 
filthy and uncertain preparations now found in 
the shops. In Great Britain and Prance, and I 
believe most other European governments, all 
apothecaries and their clerks are required by 
law to be educated, examined and licensed; and 
even then, they are not allowed to deal in any 
medicines except such as have been approved of, 
and made officinal by the regular faculty. This 
is a wise provision, and serves not only to pro- 



256 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

tect the public against such fata! mistakes as fre- 
quently occur here, but it also shuts the door 
against the swarms of nostrum dealers, which in 
this country is wide open. 

The American governments often manifest a 
disposition to favor quackery, and allow the larg- 
est liberty to impostors and humbugs of all 
sorts ; and some of the States have, at different 
times, made large appropriations in money to aid 
quack institutions. This state of public opinion 
is believed to arise chiefly from a morbid im- 
pression made by newspaper publications. Such 
publications tend also to outrage common decen- 
ey, debauch the public mind, and corrupt the sen- 
timents and manners of the people. The same 
paper that brings the President's Message, or 
other important information, on one page, exhi- 
bits on another the most indecent advertisements 
— cures for numerous female complaints, also 
for certain private disorders of both sexes. Mo- 
desty is ignored and chastity is mocked at — the 
thoughts become depraved — the passions are 
excited, and libertinism is the consequence. The 
marriage contract, once held sacred and invio- 



THE PRESS. 257 

late 7 ceases to be respected and becomes weak 
as a spider's web, and that implicit confidence 
which the parties once reposed in each other be- 
comes shaken, or perhaps is given to the winds. 
Such publications are nuisances, wherever they 
are seen. The family newspaper should contain 
nothing that is inconsistent with the most scru- 
pulous virtue. It should in all respects be pure 
as the mountain snow, and no obscene word 
should be allowed to pollute its columns. It 
should be fit to grace the parlor or drawing- 
room of the most fastidious female. The public 
seem not to be aware of the immense influence 
that such publications have upon human life. 
Every thoughtful mother and every virtuous 
daughter should commit every newspaper to the 
flames the moment she finds any such stain upon 
its pages. Let this be done, and such vile prints 
will soon disappear from common observation, 
and be found only in the sinks of harlots. No 
law would be required to suppress them, if fe- 
male sanctity, thus abused and profaned, would 
rise in its might and consign them to darkness 
and infamy. 



A o L 



258 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

Here is an opportunity for woman to exert 
her influence in defence of her own honor — 'tis 
in her power to stay the tide of infidelity, to 
chasten the sentiments and reform the manners 
of the public. If she will, she can do it — her 
arm is stronger than the Press, and her power, 
once exerted in behalf of virtue, is paramount to 
all human laws. With her own hand she can 
wipe the stain from her country's escutcheon, 
and show the world that American females will 
not tolerate the least approach to profanity. 

It is not supposed that the publishers of news- 
papers are worse than other men. As a class, 
they are intelligent, and high-minded, and we 
think there are many among them who would 
willingly reject all such advertisements if the 
practice could become universal. This evil has 
made its encroachments insidiously, and adver- 
tisements and publications which are now re- 
garded with indifference, would a century ago 
have been deemed obscene publications, and sub- 
jected their authors to severe penalties. 



FEMALE INFLUENCE. 259 



CHAPTER XXIII, 



FEMALE INFLUENCE. 



When important effects are produced by phy- 
sical force or other direct and obvious means ; 
both the effects and the power by which they are 
produced, are readily understood. But when 
important results are brought about by means 
which operate silently and quietly, the public 
may not be aware of the causes by which such 
effects are accomplished. When we witness po- 
litical, judicial or financial gatherings, and see no 
form and hear no voice but those of men — when 
we urge our way through the busy street, amid 
the rude trampings and loud greetings of men, 
it seems as though everything was managed by 
our own sex. But if we enter the parlor or take 
a peep into the nursery, we shall soon find our 
mistake. We shall see that the power itself 
which moves the thousand wheels without, re- 
sides within — not a physical, but amoral power 



260 



QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



— not a power to be feared and dreaded, but a 
power to be admired and loved — not a power 
which binds with chains of iron, but with slender, 
silken cords. This power may be hidden in sav- 
age life, or crushed out by despots, but in en- 
lightened and refined communities it never ceas- 
es to operate. Here woman has her share of 
influence in society, and when that influence is 
discreetly exercised, we think no one should com- 
plain, although misguided individuals are some- 
times clamorous for what they call " woman's 
rights." TTe believe that, in refined communi- 
ties, the influence of the mother in forming the 
character of the man is greater than that of the 
father, and that the unobserved influence of the 
nursery is more potent than that of the college. 
Abundant examples show that without the soften- 
ing and refining influence of female society, men 
become rude barbarians. But this influence, like 
every other human power, is liable to be per- 
verted or misemployed. Confined to its own 
appropriate sphere and directed to proper ob- 
jects, it is salutary. When it promotes moral. 
Christian and social virtues — when it softens 



FEMALE INFLUENCE. 261 

masculine ferocity and tames the turbulent pas- 
sions — when it pleads the cause of the needy 
and comforts the afflicted — when it adorns and 
beautifies humanity and sheds a halo of loveli- 
ness on everything around, — then, indeed, it be* 
comes the greatest of earthly blessings. No- 
where is the strength of that influence more ap- 
parent than in New England — nowhere else are 
family ties more sacredly observed — and no- 
where in the wide world are the endearments of 
the parental hearth so strong and so holy. 

Several causes have contributed to give Ame- 
rican females a very large share of influence in 
medical matters, and it must be acknowledged 
that that influence has often, either directly or 
indirectly, promoted empiricism. For good or 
for evil, it is evident that this power is of no 
trifling importance. Every one knows that no 
young physician can succeed without the appro- 
bation of the maids and matrons of his particular 
precinct. He is held amenable to their tribu- 
nal; — their approving smiles give him life, and 
hope, and prosperity ; or their disapprobation, like 
the frowns of some angry deity, drives him to 
23 



262 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

despair. His ultimate success may be measured 
by the degree of favor which this board of con- 
servators bestow upon him. He may pass the 
most rigid examination at Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia or London, yet if he cannot gain the 
approbation of this last board, every other testi- 
monial must pass for nothing. If he gives full 
satisfaction here, nothing more is required — all 
other diplomas are useless, for no one is allowed 
to go behind a judgment thus rendered by a court 
of matrons. 

This is the avenue through which most kinds 
of quackery make their entrance into society. 
The public cannot always judge correctly of the 
truth or falsehood of the numerous schemes and 
plans set up by pretenders. The husband rarely 
meddles with medical matters in his own family 
— he takes good care of all his money matters, 
and seldom trusts his notes or accounts with his 
wife ; but the business of selecting a medical ad- 
viser in case one is required, is too small busi- 
ness for him, and indeed the wife holds that to 
belong to her own exclusive province. There- 
fore the wife and daughters, with the rest of the 
females in the neighborhood, manage that matter 



FEMALE INFLUENCE. 263 

as best suits them. It is not strange that what- 
ever is most pleasing in appearance, and least 
repulsive in practice, meets with the most ready 
approval. They cannot fathom the mind nor 
measure the intellectual attainments, but are apt 
to take upon trust whatever fancy prefers. Tes- 
timonials of character, acquirements and experi- 
ence, are of little amount here. If the candidate 
for favor pretends to possess a knowledge of 
some very new, very easy, very safe and very 
sure method of treatment, and if he reprobates 
and denounces every other method, and boasts 
much of his own skill, he will bo likely to be al- 
lowed at least to make a trial of his skill. Pru- 
dent business men are not so easily imposed upon 
in matters of pecuniary interest. Before the 
tailor will trust the dandy with a coat, he wants 
some reliable security ; neither the word of the 
customer nor the guaranty of a half dozen ma- 
trons in the neighborhood will be deemed suffi- 
cient. Before the merchant will buy a ship, he 
must see her register, and ascertain from inspec- 
tors, builders and owners, if she is every way 
sound and seaworthy; he will not be satisfied 
with a new coat of paint, and a flowing pennant 



264 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

with its radiant swallow's tail. Nor will he en- 
trust the command of his ship to an inexperi- 
enced navigator, or any one who casts aside the 
old compass and quadrant, and offers to conduct 
the voyage upon an entirely new plan, and steer 
his course by some new star or nebulous meteor. 
In all that relates to money matters, men are 
generally wise and prudent ; small matters are 
not considered beneath their notice — even the 
expenses of the nursery are often calculated with 
penurious exactness. But upon whatever con- 
cerns the life and health of themselves or their 
families, they manifest a culpable apathy and in- 
discretion. 

The sagacious charlatan is aware of this state 
of things, and seizes every opportunity to gain 
the favor of all the gossips in town, and to enlist 
them in his service. Officious individuals may 
sometimes pay all their own medical bills in this 
way, and perhaps get some presents to boot. 
Even hags of a low order often accomplish much 
in their way : common sense and common decen- 
cy are confounded by their babbling, reason falls 
before their flying artillery, and empiricism and 
fraud triumph over truth and reason. 



PROFESSIONAL DISCORD. 265 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

PROFESSIONAL DISCORD. 

The old lady described by Addison, as being 
required to render up her final account to Rha- 
damanthus, declared that she " had been so ta- 
ken up with publishing the faults of others that 
she had no time to consider her own." Now in 
order to avoid the reproach of such a condition, 
it may be well for physicians, individually and 
collectively, to keep a watchful eye over their 
own conduct. We are publishing no secret, nor 
making any extraordinary confession, when we 
acknowledge that there are many names on the 
lists of regular physicians which should never 
have appeared there ; names of men not without 
talents or merits, but men who might have graced 
some other profession or occupation, and shone 
with lustre in some other sphere, yet are illy 
adapted to the profession of medicine. It is not 
every man who would make a brave soldier, or 
23* 



266 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

who could become an eloquent advocate ; and 
the natural fitness of an individual for his calling 
should not be overlooked ; yet the public, and 
sometimes the profession, appear to suppose that 
all that is necessary to qualify an individual to 
become a doctor in medicine, is a given amount 
of medical knowledge, and whoever brings this 
requisition, even if he have no other, is initiated. 
Although it may be impossible to remedy this 
evil, yet it may be proper to consider it. The 
allotment of occupations and professions seems 
to be given to blind chance. Some apparently 
trifling accident — some freak of good or ill for- 
tune — often casts the lot of an individual for 
life. Some, by their own voluntary choice, se- 
lect, as the business of their whole lives, a pro- 
fession of the duties of which they know little or 
nothing. Others appear to adopt it as a choice 
of evils, not liking anything else ; nor would they 
like that, if they really understood what it was. 
The young man, unacquainted with his own un- 
developed powers, cannot himself foresee how he 
shall succeed in this or any other profession. 
Mere scholarship is by no means all that is re- 



PROFESSIONAL DISCORD. 267 

quired to make a good physician. Long before 
he takes his degree — yes, long before he com- 
mences his professional studies, his thoughts and 
actions should be trained and cultivated for that 
end. The mind should be accustomed to patient 
and careful observation — to reflect, compare 
and nicely discriminate. And as a sine qua non, 
before and above everything else, he should pos- 
sess undeviating integrity. If he sets out with- 
out this, he should be sent back, for he ought not 
to succeed. 

A proper mental discipline is of the utmost 
importance. It is a mistake to suppose that a 
physician should be wise by intuition, or that he 
can see everything necessary at a single glance, 
and needs no time for thought and reflection. If 
he is loose and careless in his observations, he 
will be liable to come to wrong conclusions. If 
his mind is not accustomed to close and minute 
attention and careful consideration, he will be 
neither a good scholar nor a safe and successful 
practitioner. Every case that is worth noticing 
at all, deserves a thorough examination. Physi- 
cians are extremely liable to make mistakes 



268 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

through inattention to apparently small matters. 
Considerate persons are aware of this, and will 
not put full confidence in one who does not ap- 
pear to bestow sufficient thought upon every sub- 
ject to which his attention is properly called. 

The moral and social habits of physicians are 
always matters of great importance. Pleasant, 
agreeable and courteous manners are no insigni- 
ficant qualifications. All rudeness of every kind, 
should be studiously avoided, and every thought, 
word and deed should be governed by a careful 
circumspection. The days of professional ob- 
scenity and profanity are, or ought to be, past ; 
such things are no more becoming in the physi- 
cian than in the clergyman, and all refined com- 
munities should withhold their patronage from 
every vulgar or indecent practitioner. Xo mat- 
ter about his supposed professional acquirements, 
if he lack the other essentials let him be discard- 
ed. The public can, if they will, reform all 
abuses of this kind. Every physician should be, 
in his address and behavior, under all circum- 
stances, a real gentleman. It is not sufficient if 
he be courteous only towards his select friends 



PROFESSIONAL DISCORD. 269 

or his patrons, but urbanity should be the warp 
and woof of his whole conduct. 

His deportment towards his professional 
brethren will deserve particular attention. It is 
obvious to all, that the comfort and happiness of 
individual members — the worth of the profes- 
sion in public estimation, and its usefulness in the 
community, are best promoted by an honorable 
and amicable intercourse among its members. 
But, unfortunately, the very reverse of this is 
frequently witnessed. Neighboring physicians 
are often either open or secret enemies: they 
are jealous and envious of each other, too ready 
to publish each others' faults, and with a fiend- 
ish gladness rejoice at each others' misfortune — 
little thinking, perhaps, that their own standing, 
and that of the profession to which they belong, 
are more or less involved in everything that af- 
fects the character of an individual member. It 
cannot be expected that the public will have full 
confidence in men who are constantly engaged 
in reciprocal criminations. Whoever attempts 
to build for himself a reputation upon the ruins 
of another, builds upon a slippery and precarious 



270 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

foundation, that will be likely to let him down. 
No lasting benefit can be derived from such 
means. One may rob his brother of his good 
name, yet it will not enrich himself, although it 
may make the brother " poor indeed." Although 
an envious public may sometimes rejoice to wit- 
ness the petty bickerings and skirmishes that 
take place between rival practitioners, yet in the 
end they will not be likely to think better of 
either — they may be pleased with the treason, 
but they will despise the traitor. No one ever 
attained any enviable distinction by such vile 
means. Those who engage in such personal en- 
counters, are generally found at last in the con- 
dition of the famous Kilkenny cats. If the whole 
matter ended there, we would not complain, but 
consider it a happy riddance of unprofitable mem- 
bers ; but the public consider the profession it- 
self dishonored by such examples. 

This professional discord usually arises from 
mistaken views of self-interest, and, like a ma- 
niacal felo de se, seems to be incident to the pro- 
fession. And when all these things are consi- 
dered, no one need wonder that it is so as- 



PROFESSIONAL DISCORD. 271 

sailable to quackery. The Scriptures declare, 
that a house that is divided against itself cannot 
stand. This moral disease is continually prey- 
ing upon the vitals of the profession, and all rea- 
sonable means should be made use of, for its re- 
moval. Cure this, and let every regular physi- 
cian forthwith dismiss all his private jealousies 
and animosities, and conclude to overlook the 
foibles which he thinks he sees in his brethren, 
remembering that none are perfect, and cordially 
unite with all in building up, improving and pro- 
moting the universal cause — let this be done, 
and quackery of every name and form and color 
would soon take wings and fly away — not as an 

eagle towards heaven, but it is needless to 

say where. 



272 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



CHAPTER XXV, 



CLERICAL INFLUENCE. 



As we have said before, during the dark ages 
medical knowledge was confined to the clergy, 
and the same individuals officiated both as priests 
and physicians. But at length medicine became 
a separate profession, and the treatment of phy- 
sical diseases was assigned to one class of men, 
and the care of moral and religious matters to 
another. By this division of duties and respon- 
sibilities, each department was placed in a con- 
dition to cultivate and improve its own province. 
Each strove to shake off the errors with which 
superstition and bigotry had enshrined it, and to 
establish its foundation upon truth and reason. 
This greatly increased the value and importance 
of each profession, and made it exclusively re- 
sponsible for the proper discharge of its own 
duties ; and the good of society requires that the 
proper limits of each should be distinctly known 



CLERICAL INFLUENCE. 273 

and scrupulously regarded. Yet, at the same 
time, the two classes may labor side by side in 
the great cause of humanity, and be mutual help- 
ers of each other. Their offices, though distinct, 
are co-ordinate, and duty often calls them to the 
same house of mourning and to the bedside of the 
same expiring patient. No other professions are 
brought into such close proximity. The duties 
of no others are fraught with such deep respon- 
sibility, or are required on such momentous oc- 
casions. 

Unfortunately, the members of each profes- 
sion do not always entertain towards the other 
such sentiments of respect and kindness as would 
best promote their own happiness and usefulness. 
On either side may sometimes be seen a cold- 
ness or smothered antipathy; the members of 
each appear inclined to keep aloof from the oth- 
er, or to maintain a shy reserve. From such 
observations, the public may be ready to con- 
clude that they have little confidence in or re- 
spect for each other, and both callings are liable 
to be disparaged, because the public are not 
24 



274 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

likely to have full confidence in professions 
which do not reciprocally confide in each other. 
It is not denied that clergymen, as well as 
other men, have a perfect right to choose their 
own physicians, and in their own families give 
their preference to whatever mode of practice 
they may select; but when they endeavor to 
bring their official influence to bear upon the sub- 
ject, and strive with all their might to overthrow 
the established system of rational medicine, and 
to encourage, support and advance some empiri- 
cal scheme, we think that such a course is repre- 
hensible. With the great body of clergymen, 
perhaps, we have little cause of complaint ; yet 
it is not uncommon to see individuals of that 
class engaged in war against the established sys- 
tem of medicine, and aiding and abetting some 
nefarious quackery. All the knowledge that the 
labors and observations of two thousand years 
have accumulated is set at naught as worthless, 
and they lend all their influence to the support 
of some new and false scheme. They are often 
known to make the most strenuous exertions to 
overthrow what they choose to call the old school 



CLERICAL INFLUENCE. 275 

of medicine, and sometimes whole communities 
are seen to follow the ipse dixit of such a leader, 
and to go over almost en masse to some absurd 
humbug, of the true nature of which they really 
know nothing. Such men appear to think that a 
complete revolution is soon to take place in 
medical matters, and they expect to lead the van 
to victory. But this unholy enterprise can never 
be accomplished. Although individuals and com- 
munities may thus be led astray for a time, yet 
the delusion will at length pass away and cast 
the mantle of shame upon its mistaken advocates ; 
reason will some day return, and truth will be 
restored. When clergymen exchange the sur- 
plice for a medical toga, or attempt to wear both 
at the same time, they dishonor both professions. 
Such men are unstable, and often unreliable in 
everything — they mistake their calling, and in- 
stead of endeavoring to persuade men to repair 
to the great Physician to be healed of moral ills, 
they direct them to Thomson or Hahnemann for 
the relief of bodily infirmities ; instead of lead- 
ing men to the fountain of living waters to be 
cleansed of moral pollutions, they direct them 



276 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

to the wet sheet or shower bath of Priessnitz. 
or point them to some hydropathic pool. 

Clergymen and religious newspapers some- 
times recommend nostrums. The Rev. Mr. A, 
or the Rev. Mr. B. affixes his signature to a glow- 
ing recommendation of some worthless nostrum, 
and advises everybody to use it. Whether the 
article in question is what he recommends it to 
be or not, he does not and cannot know. Of 
this, educated physicians alone can judge, and to 
them exclusively the matter should be left. It 
is idle to suppose that some vagrant ignoramus 
has learnt something that no educated physician 
knows. Such things do not happen in our day 
— every such pretension is false, and every such 
preparation worthless. It may be said that an 
ignorant peasant might pick up a diamond of the 
first water ; but if he should, neither the peasant 
nor any one else would know its value, until it 
had been examined by a competent lapidary — 
and if upon examination such lapidary should 
pronounce some supposed gem to be nothing but 
a worthless quartz pebble, no prudent man would 
be willing to give his gold for it. Nor should 



CLERICAL INFLUENCE. 277 

any reasonable man be willing to risk his life, 
his money or his reputation, upon an article that 
has not been approved by proper medical au- 
thorities. 

The proprietors of nostrums are extremely 
fond of advertising them in religious papers, and 
the publishers are too often induced to comply 
with such requests. They may perhaps intend 
to exercise a judicious discrimination, and adver- 
tise only such as they suppose to be useful. But 
such publishers ought to know that it is not their 
province to decide such questions — they belong 
exclusively to scientific medicine ; and as the 
great body of educated physicians have inhibited 
every variety of nostrum, that decision should be 
respected. By all high-minded and honorable 
physicians every such nostrum, without excep- 
tion, is regarded as a public nuisance. Such 
publishers ought to know, that the articles which 
they consent to advertise, are no better than 
thousands of others of the same sort. If they 
are inert, they are criminal impositions — and if 
they are active and powerful preparations, they 
are always liable to be injudiciously adminis- 
24* 



278 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

tered, and are dangerous in the hands of the 
common people. 

It is presumed that the publishers of such re- 
ligious papers have not. given this subject that 
attention and reflection which it deserves. They 
may not be aware that they are mingling false- 
hoods with religious truths ; and giving the appro- 
bation of Christianity to a reprehensible business. 
Are they aware that such advertisements are re- 
garded as moral defilements ? — as leprous spots 
upon a surface otherwise pure and healthy ? Or 
do they intend to disregard the highest medical 
authority, and be guided alone by pecuniary con- 
siderations ? We know of some publishers who 
in former times incautiously admitted such ad- 
vertisements into their columns, but who have 
been convinced of the impropriety of so doing, 
and have excluded them altogether ; and it is to 
be hoped that every truly religious paper will 
follow the example. 

The great mass of false and contradictory tes- 
timony in favor of the multitude of nostrums 
which are constantly offered to the public, tends 
to distract and unsettle the mind, lessen the con- 



CLERICAL INFLUENCE. 279 

fidence of men in all testimony, and make them 
skeptical. An invalid sees an article advertised 
and recommended by some reverend clergyman, 
as a certain cure for some disease with which he 
supposes himself to be afflicted. Confiding in 
the high authority by which it is recommended, 
he procures and tries it, but is not benefited. 
He next tries some other nostrum, with no bet- 
ter success, and again he tries another and ano- 
ther, but is not cured. At length, perhaps, he 
becomes disgusted with all medicine, repudiates 
all medical means, and concludes that the whole 
profession is but a tissue of finesse and false- 
hood. 

Yet let no one suppose that this medical infi- 
delity will stand alone. The same causes which 
go to promote medical skepticism, tend also to 
produce religious infidelity. Whatever tends to 
weaken public confidence in the established sys- 
tem of rational medicine, most assuredly tends 
to weaken that confidence in the truths of Chris- 
tianity. Medical and religious skepticism are 
intimately connected; and whatever favors the 
one, favors the other. The father may prompt 



280 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

his children to treat other men with insolence 
and rudeness, but he will most likely in his turn 
be obliged to brook the same kind of disrespect. 
So a clergyman may manifest an entire want of 
confidence in the medical profession, but he will 
be likely to find the same spirit of unbelief creep- 
ing in to his own province. He may aim a blow 
against that profession, but it will eventually re- 
coil, with redoubled force, upon himself and the 
cause in which he is engaged. 

It is not pretended that every man with a di- 
ploma in his pocket is deserving of implicit con- 
fidence, nor that all the members of this profes- 
sion are all that they should be. Too many have 
been but imperfectly educated; the opportunities 
of too many have been insufficient; too many are 
by nature illy adapted to its delicate and respon- 
sible offices — and far too many neglect to im- 
prove themselves and keep pace with the onward 
progress of the science. Full perfection cannot 
be expected anywhere. Yet, with some excep- 
tions, the great body of regular physicians are 
learned and worthy men, among whom may al- 
ways be found those of the highest order of in- 



CLERICAL INFLUENCE. 281 

tellect, the most extensive learning, the most 
sterling integrity and practical piety. With all 
its imperfections, it would not perhaps suffer by 
comparison with any other calling. Let every 
one exercise a proper degree of charity towards 
all others; — let him scrupulously avoid the least 
encroachment upon their professional rights ; let 
him endeavor, to the utmost of his ability, to 
build up his own and promote the honor and 
usefulness of every other — so shall he best ad- 
vance the good of society and secure his own 
honor and happiness. 

He is poorly acquainted with history, or has 
read to little purpose, who is not aware that 
revolutions of every kind, like tornadoes, tend 
to prostrate everything which stands in their 
way. The sweeping revolutions that have been 
witnessed in some European governments are 
melancholy proofs of this. The spirit which at 
first sought only to dethrone a single sovereign, 
in its progress overturned the church, swept away 
the altar, and finally buried in the dark abyss of 
infidelity every vestige of Christianity. The 
fire kindled by a single spark spread uncon- 



282 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

trolled, and mocked all efforts to stay its pro- 
gress or guide its course, until every civil and 
religious institution was demolished, and nothing 
remained but anarchy and atheism. Let those 
who are disposed to disturb the established in- 
stitutions of their country, ponder upon these 
things, and beware. 



VAGRANT QUACKS. 283 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

VAGRANT QUACKS. 

We sometimes see a migrating or vagrant 
quack who travels from place to place, always 
hailing from some large city, and notifying the 
villagers where he stops that he is very eminent 
in the treatment of some one or more particular 
disease — perhaps it is rheumatism, scrofula, 
asthma, neuraJgia, cancer, consumption, or all of 
them together. Sometimes these men give a 
free lecture by way of introduction, and some- 
times a kind of aid-de-camp is a travelling at- 
tendant, whose business is to eulogize the great 
doctor, and help to drum up the patients. No 
charge for advice ! is conspicuous in the adver- 
tisement. Their medicines are all specifics, 
and such as no one else employs or has a know- 
ledge of, and they take care to inform all who 
are silly enough to consult them, that they are 
laboring under some occult or serious affections, 



284 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

which nobody else so well understands; or has 
the means of curing. Invalids are often induced 
to suppose that such a fortunate opportunity 
should by all means be improved; lest it might 
never return, or the cure be offered a day too 
late. By such means large fees are sometimes 
wrung from those who are illy able to pay them, 
and who in return receive some worthless or dan- 
gerous preparations. 

Some of these quacks travel regular circuits, 
and make their appearance at stated times and 
places, and the country people often seem to 
suppose that because a man lives or pretends to 
live in some large place, he must of course 
be some extraordinary man. That is a great 
mistake. Such itinerant practitioners are gene- 
rally ignorant men, and always destitute of mo- 
ral principles. Their greatness consists in im- 
pudence, and duplicity — they are great at 
schemes, and tricks, and frauds — they are great 
impostors. The public ought to know that no 
man who has, or deserves to have, a good business 
at his own proper place of residence, ever goes 
abroad in this way to look up patients. It is 



VAGBANT QUACKS. 285 

because those who know these men best do not 
see fit to employ them, that they seek for patron- 
age among strangers, who do not know them. 
Society should be protected by legislative enact- 
ments against this class of knaves. But the 
State governments generally appear to be very 
careful of the rights of impostors, and whilst a 
man is prohibited by law from peddling essence, 
or selling tin, the vilest charlatan may with per- 
fect impunity stalk over the country to deceive, 
defraud, and poison whom he may. If any class 
of mountebanks ever deserve the halter, it is 
such as these. 

There is another class of impostors who locate 
themselves in or about the large cities, and 
throw their advertisements broadcast over the 
country — some pretend to be Indian doctors, 
some to cure cancers, and others, almost all chro- 
nic or incurable diseases. The unsuspecting 
country people, thinking that everything that is 
printed must of course be true, often take the 
statements of these knaves for facts, and are led 
to suppose that the advertisers are some of the 
most eminent men of the cities. Under these 
25 



286 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

impressions, scores rush to the cities with all the 
funds they can muster, to see some matchless sa- 
van, and be cured. Or if it is not convenient for 
the invalid to go in person, a description of the 
case in writing, accompanied with the money, and 
forwarded by mail or otherwise, will be sufficient 
to bring the cure. In this way these miscreants 
often succeed in picking the pockets of many 
honest individuals. The public ought to be on 
their guard against the machinations of such 
men ; their practice is empirical and dangerous, 
and not unfrequently positively injurious. No 
skilful and worthy men ever issue such advertise- 
ments ; and whenever such papers are found, they 
should be considered as evidence of fraud and 
chicanery. They are snares set to catch the 
silly, and prudent men should avoid them. 






NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS. 287 



CHAPTER XXYII . 

NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The public are egregiously imposed upon by 
certificates of cures, and other recommendations 
of nostrums, which they see in print. There 
are a multitude of ways which the ingenuity of 
dishonest men have devised for this purpose, and 
they are so universally untrue that every such 
recommendation should be regarded as a false- 
hood, without respect to the appended signature; 
because no one who ought to be believed, will 
ever set his name to any such recommendation, 
unless he is himself deceived. The proprietor 
of a nostrum may have some relatives, or other 
persons, who are in some way interested in his 
success, and who are therefore willing to lend a 
helping hand in order thereby to benefit them- 
selves. Or he may have presented certain indi- 
viduals with samples for their trial and use, free 
of cost ; and as some of those thus supplied may 



288 QUACKERY UNMASKED, 

have felt better after using the articles, and have 
been silly enough to suppose the medicine cured 
them, they may feel very grateful for the sup- 
posed disinterested favor, and be willing to sign 
any paper that the nostrum-maker or his agent 
may present. 

Consumptive persons, always deluded by false 
hopes, are ever prone to suppose that they are 
benefited by any new medicine, and often think 
that they are nearly or quite cured by some new 
article. They are still, they say, a little weak, 
but the main disease is, they think, wholly eradi- 
cated. Always extremely grateful, such patients 
are anxious that the whole world should be bene- 
fited by the same means. But, alas ! the ink is 
scarcely dry upon their signatures, before their 
own history shows the falsity of their certificates. 
The disease, of which they imagined themselves 
cured, has hastened to its fatal termination, and 
the signer of the certificate rests quietly beneath 
the sod, unable to contradict it. Yet the certifi- 
cates themselves are not consigned, as they 
should be, to the graves of their authors, but are 
preserved and printed, and made to travel the 



NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS. 289 

rounds of newspapers, almanacs and handbills, 
far from home, long after the remains of their 
authors have mingled with the dust. 

The advertisers of such nostrums often assure 
the public that their articles are used and recom- 
mended by regular physicians. This is never 
true to any extent, and should never be in a sin- 
gle instance. Sometimes the names of physicians 
are affixed to recommendations of some kind, and 
ignominiously paraded before the public in that 
condition; sometimes the wretches have had the 
culpable audacity to make use of such names as 
Mott, Bache, or Warren, without any authority ; 
and sometimes ignorant or weak-minded practi- 
tioners have been silly enough to lend their names 
for such unhallowed exhibitions. But the public 
ought to know that, in these times, no physician 
who does not deserve a mad-house ever allows 
such use of his name. 

But there is a shorter and easier way of get- 
ting up certificates of remarkable cures. It is 
this : — the proprietor represents just such a case 
as he chooses; he then appends the certificates 
of cure, and affixes such names as his fancy may 
25* 



290 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

suggest, and the public are referred to Mr. A., 
or Mrs. B., or C, or D., in New York, Baltimore, 
or New Orleans. Nobody ever takes the trou- 
ble to look up the persons whose testimony is 
thus given to the public ; and if they were sought 
for, they could never be found, for they never 
existed. 

The most rascally of nostrum-makers often 
talk loudly against quackery, and very earnestly 
caution the public against counterfeits of their 
own preparations. I shall by no means under- 
take to expose all the tricks made use of by this 
class of men, for they are legions ; but there is 
one more that I will mention, which may not be 
generally thought of. A puff is manufactured, 
and the publisher of some paper is paid for in- 
serting it as an editorial article. The publish- 
ers of other papers, being paid for it, copy the 
article into their papers; and by these means 
such falsehoods are circulated in disguise, all 
over the country. Surely " man is a gullible an- 
imal " — the bait that a grey rat would reject, is 
swallowed by grey-headed men. And whilst all 
their nefarious schemes are going on, the authors 



NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS. 291 

and managers of the farce sit coinplaisantly be- 
hind the curtain, filling their pockets — not w ith 
coppers, but — with sovereigns. 

Non-professional men appear to suppose, that, 
for each disease incident to humanity, nature has 
provided a special remedy, and that all the se- 
cret of medicine consists in the proper selection 
of that article. This notion prevailed in the 
earliest times, when superstitious rites were the 
only remedies employed; and at the present 
time it is an empirical hypothesis, upon which 
most nostrums are predicated. This is an obvi- 
ous error. No disease, of any considerable du- 
ration, is found to consist of a single stage only, 
but most diseases in their course pass through 
several stages, by which the condition of the pa- 
tient is essentially changed ; so that such agents 
as might be most beneficial in one stage, would 
be useless or even injurious in another. Eation- 
al medicine endeavors to adapt the treatment to 
the condition and requirements of the patient in 
every .age of his lisease, always selecting some 
of fiie most suitable remedies for each symptom 
::id condition; and no skilful practitioner ever 



292 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

thinks of treating all diseases by specifics, any 
more than a skilful mechanic would think of 
building a house or constructing a machine with 
a single tool. The treatment which is proper in 
the beginning of a disease, is often quite impro- 
per in its progress or towards its close ; and a 
remedy that might be very proper in a certain 
stage of a certain disease in one individual, is 
often quite improper in the same stage of the 
same disease in another in different circum- 
stances. A skilful mariner never thinks of mak- 
ing a voyage by any positive directions given be- 
fore hand ; but he watches the ocean and the ele- 
ments — is continually taking his observations, 
his soundings, and his reckonings, and endeavors 
always to adapt his measures to existing circum- 
stances. In like manner, the skilful physician 
carefully watches his patient, takes account of 
all his symptoms, considers the nature and ten- 
dency of his disease, and the circumstances which 
attend him, and, after a full computation of all 
these, endeavors to adapt his measures to the 
exigency of the case. Every case of indisposi- 
tion, however plain and simple it may appear to 



NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS. 293 

bystanders, is nevertheless to some extent com- 
plicated; it has its peculiar symptoms and-condi- 
tions, and it is not until collecting, comparing 
and considering all these, that the best physician 
is able to determine upon the means most proper 
to be employed. 

Besides, it is often very difficult, if not impos- 
sible, to determine the true character of a dis- 
ease by its early symptoms ; so that much skill 
and experience are often required to make a cor- 
rect diagnosis. But when the case is fully made 
out, no good physician thinks of treating it with 
one or more specifics. Such remedies are im- 
proper for physicians, and always dangerous in 
the hands of the common people, as many sad 
examples prove. The mother thinks her child 
has worms, because a neighboring matron has 
made such a positive diagnosis. Although she 
is not aware that the child is in the least indis- 
posed, yet she thinks it must be cured of the 
worms immediately. She procures a bottle of 
vermifuge, and commences the process. She re- 
peats and continues to repeat the dose, but no 
worms appear. Being determined to accom- 



294 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

plish her object, the mother continues to admin- 
ister the vermifuge which the accompanying di- 
rections inform her never fails, until the child is 
almost dead. At last a physician is called, and 
the mother is fortunate if her child is rescued 
from death and herself saved from the crime of 
infanticide. 

Take another case. A child has taken cold 
and has a slight catarrh. The mother is awak- 
ened in the night by his coughing ; — she is in- 
stantly terrified with the thought of croup, and 
as soon as possible proceeds to administer croup 
syrup. She gives one dose according to the di- 
rections. The child is no better. She repeats 
the dose, and the child grows worse. She con- 
tinues the medication, until, before morning, the 
child sinks under the influence of lobelia, anti- 
mony, or some other poison, and expires. Now 
if this good mother had given her child a cup of 
water, or called some prudent physician, her 
child might have been well in the morning. 

These are no mere fancy sketches, but true 
reports of cases which have often occurred ; and 
every thoughtful mother should know that all 



NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS. 295 

printed recommendations of nostrums are false- 
hoods, and that every such article is more or less 
dangerous, is always liable to do more harm 
than good, and should ever be shunned as some 
deadly Upas. 

The American people are great lovers of nos- 
trums. They devour whatever in that line is 
new, with insatiable voracity. Staid English- 
men look on in astonishment. They call us pill- 
eaters and syrup-drinkers, and wonder at our 
fickleness and easy credulity; so that we have 
almost become a laughing-stock in the eyes of 
the world. Medicine mongers are continually 
catering for the public taste, and as soon as one 
dish becomes a little stale, the table is bounti- 
fully supplied with new varieties in the greatest 
profusion. Brandreth could never have suc- 
ceeded in his own country ; but he saw that the 
people of the United States, like young birds in 
their nest, were holding their mouths wide open 
for something new. He embraced the opportu- 
nity, and presented himself here, ready to sup- 
ply their cravings. He announced to the people 
of the United States that he had made the great 



296 QUACKERY UNMASKEB. 

discovery that there is but one disease, viz., im- 
purity of blood, and only one sure remedy, viz., 
Brandreth's pill3. He soon found that he had 
made no mistake in calculating upon the credu- 
lity of our people. The plan succeeded beyond 
his most sanguine expectations — the demand 
for his pills increased so rapidly, that in a short 
time he found it necessary to resort to steam 
power to supply it. Like a majestic stream col- 
lected from a thousand rivulets, wealth flowed 
in upon him in measureless abundance, and made 
him in a brief period a wealthy baron. The pill 
mania has now nearly passed, but the great tra- 
gedian still hoards the immense proceeds of the 
mighty farce. 

But where are the millions who fed upon this 
ambrosia? Of those who have been thereby 
hastened to their dread account, we will say no- 
thing; but thousands may still be found who 
rue the day when unnecessarily and incautiously 
they first swallowed the mischievous article, by 
which they have entailed upon themselves per- 
petual constipation. 



ALLOPATHY. 297 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



ALLOPATHY. 



Homceopathists and other empirical sects are 
wont to talk loudly about Allopathy. The 
term, when applied to the regular medical pro- 
fession, is a misnomer, and is used by way of re- 
proach and in order to place regular physicians 
before the public in the same category with char- 
latans and mountebanks. The legitimate pro- 
fession repudiates the term, and scorns the prof- 
fered alliance. Every empirical sect takes the 
liberty to select the name by which its members 
choose to be known, and we find no fault with 
that, however inappropriate or false their cho- 
sen cognomen may be ; but when they insist upon 
giving scientific medicine an empirical name,, 
placing it astride a false hobby, and enrolling it 
in the regiment of pathies and isms, we posi- 
tively refuse compliance. She has no alliance 
with that marauding army. She has never 
26 



298 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

p.dopted any exclusive motto. Her methods of 
cure include all such rational means as science 
and experience have shown to be of value. She 
does not attempt to cure one disease by creat- 
ing another, as the term Allopathy implies, but 
to aid the inherent powers of the organism in 
removing and overcoming all disease, so far as 
that is possible, and in protecting the system 
against the injurious effects of morbid agents. If 
empirics of all kinds, names and grades, should 
see fit to form one regiment, and tune their bass 
drums, tin kettles, French horns, and Yankee 
pumpkin vines, to one syren chorus, no honora- 
ble man will interfere with the arrangement. 
They may cousin and cozen each other to their 
hearts' content, for aught we care ; but the 
standard of legitimate medicine will never be 
unfurled in that troop. 

The term Regular is sometimes applied to 
physicians, in the room of Allopathic, and igno- 
rant men often endeavor to persuade the public 
that all medical science is confined to old fash- 
ioned stationary dogmas. This is wholly untrue. 
The science of Medicine, like the science of Phi- 



ALLOPATHY. 299 

iosophy, Astronomy, Chemistry or Geology, em- 
braces all the truths that have been gleaned from 
the past and all the knowledge of the present 
time, and is ever looking forward to the future. 
Medicine is studied, not like a dead language, 
but as a progressive art, in which continual im- 
provements are made; and he who does not so 
study and so practise it, neglects his duty to 
himself, his profession, and the community to 
which he belongs. Strictly speaking, the word 
Regular might as well be applied to clergymen 
and lawyers, as physicians. When a man, who 
is otherwise qualified, has enjoyed and rightly 
improved the proper advantages of study and in- 
struction in the science of law, he is admitted to 
the Bar and becomes a regular attorney. So 
when an individual has enjoyed the opportuni- 
ties necessary to qualify him to practise medi- 
cine, and is found upon examination to be so 
qualified, he is admitted and becomes a regular 
physician. In both instances, the regulations 
have been provided to protect the public against 
unworthy and incompetent men. Reason and 
experience show this to be a salutary regulation ; 



300 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

and instead of striving to weaken and break it 
down, the public should endeavor to strengthen 
it and raise it still higher. 

We do not pretend that there are no quacks 
or unworthy individuals who leap over those 
bounds, nor that all who are included within the 
pale of the legitimate profession are every way 
worthy of confidence, nor that physicians are free 
from the common intellectual and moral delin- 
quencies incident to mankind. Indeed, none are 
infallible — the best may sometimes err. But 
the profession, notwithstanding its imperfections 
and short comings, is of immense importance to 
the public, and we invoke the assistance of all 
good citizens to aid in building up, improving 
and protecting an enlightened and reliable medi- 
cal profession. 



PROFESSIONAL ACQUIREMENTS. 301 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE LOW STANDARD OF PROFESSIONAL ACQUIREMENTS. 

The low standard of medical education in the 
United States makes the profession too easy of 
access, and often allows incompetent individuals 
to enter its ranks. The present state of medi- 
cal literature requires a longer term of pupilage, 
and a more thorough course of clinical instruc- 
tion, than has hitherto been fixed upon by our 
American medical institutions. Public sentiment 
requires a higher standard ; a standard that would 
place the profession infinitely above all low pre- 
tenders, — upon a summit to which empiricism 
might look with envy, but could never approach. 
The distinction between men learned and skilled 
in the profession, and ignorant pretenders, should 
be made wider and more apparent. Men who 
obtain diplomas without more than a smattering 
of medical knowledge are easily induced to aban- 
26* 



302 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

don the profession altogether, or to embrace 
some variety of quackery. 

I believe that in all parts of Europe the re- 
quisites for a degree far exceed any in the Uni- 
ted States. In Great Britain and France a more 
thorough preliminary education is required be- 
fore the candidate is allowed to commence hi3 
pupilage. He is then to study four years, and 
six months of each year must be passed at some 
regular medical college. He must become tho- 
roughly acquainted with hospital practice and 
clinical surgery. He must also have an experi- 
mental knowledge of chemical pharmacy, and be 
able to pass a rigid examination in all the col- 
lateral sciences. In Austria and Prussia the 
standard is still higher; — a liberal education is 
an indispensable prerequisite, after which five 
years of study and instruction are required, dur- 
ing which time the candidate for a degree must 
undergo a thorough examination every six 
months. There are, it is true, some quacks in 
all these countries, but they are always of a low 
order, and never held in much estimation by in- 
telligent people. 



PROFESSIONAL ACQUIREMENTS. 303 

The case is very different here. In many pla- 
ces in the United States, public opinion has ele- 
vated quack practitioners above regular physi- 
cians. Perhaps no city in the world affords 
better means for clinical instruction than the city 
of New York. In her numerous hospitals, dis- 
eases of all kinds, in all their various forms and 
stages, can be seen and studied ad libitum under 
as competent teachers as are found in any part 
of the world ; but the brief period allotted to the 
common student does not give him time to enjoy 
the full benefit of these institutions j and often a 
pecuniary inability opposes its stern barriers and 
wholly deprives the student of any participation 
in these advantages. In this land of boasted 
liberty, public opinion is opposed to arbitrary 
rules, and the right of every man to medicate 
whomsoever he pleases is everywhere conceded. 
Whether he study little or much, with or without 
a diploma, hd is under no restraint, and our State 
governments always appear disposed to allow 
quackery its largest liberty. I know that these 
are mortifying reflections : but they are never- 
theless true. Still, however, some allowance 



304 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

should be made for the newness of our institu- 
tions and the unsettled state of public opinion. 
And it is confidently to be hoped that the time 
is not far distant, when the profession of medi- 
cine shall be allowed to occupy the same rank in 
America that it does in Europe, and no young 
American shall think of going to Edinburgh. Paris 
or Yienna, to complete his medical education, 
any more than he would think of going to Egypt 
to finish a study of theology. 

I know it will be said that if the term of pu- 
pilage is lengthened, and a more thorough ac- 
quaintance with clinical and hospital practice re- 
quired, the expenses will be increased to such 
an extent as to render it impossible for young 
men of small means to obtain medical degrees. 
To this I answer, that neither the public nor the 
young men with small means would suffer if it 
should so operate. If physicians were more tho- 
roughly educated, and better qualified for the 
duties of their calling, the public would certainly 
gain by it, and the profession itself would enjoy 
a higher degree of public confidence. And if by 
such means some meritorious young men should 



PROFESSIONAL ACQUIREMENTS. 305 

be hindered from entering into the profession, it 
would be a favor to them, for they had much bet- 
ter stay out of it than starve in it. Throughout 
the United States, the profession is everywhere 
crowded ; physicians are quite too numerous, 
and under existing circumstances a prudent 
young man had much better select some other 
more reliable occupation than to embark in the 
precarious business of medicine. No other class 
of men are so poorly paid for their services as 
physicians. Reckoning the cost of a medical edu- 
cation, the same amount of capital invested in 
almost any respectable business would prove 
more profitable. 

It is said that when a young man inquired of 
the Hon. Daniel Webster as to the prospects in 
the profession of law, Mr. "Webster replied, 
u The profession is quite full down here, but 
there is room enough up yonder." It is always 
so in medicine ; the lower ranks of the profes- 
sion are ever quite full, but there is always 
" room enough up yonder." In the present con- 
dition of things, no young man should select the 
profession of medicine as the business of his life, 



306 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

unless he intends to surpass the common ranks, 
and take his position " up yonder." Every 
young man who contemplates entering into any 
profession, should aim above mediocrity, and en- 
deavor, by his industry and fidelity, to obtain an 
honorable position in the profession of his choice. 
Neither the honor of the profession nor the good 
of society requires any large increase in the num- 
ber of medical graduates; but both are deeply 
interested in the thorough qualification of all 
who are allowed to assume the responsibilities 
of the profession. 



INSUFFICIENCY OF MEDICINE. 307 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE INSUFFICIENCY OF MEDICINE TO ACCOMPLISH ALL 
THAT THE PUBLIC -REQUIRE. 

One of the many causes of quackery may be 
found in the insufficiency of the profession fully 
to satisfy the demands of the public. Too much 
is always expected of physicians ; and when they 
fail to accomplish all that is desired, the failure 
is not attributed, as it usually should be, to the 
irremediable condition of the patient, but to 
some supposed want of skill in the practitioner. 
Scarcely a patient dies but some appear to think 
the use of proper means might have saved him. 
In this respect public opinion is greatly in error. 
It is not in the power of the profession directly 
to save life so often as is generally supposed. 
The human system, in its most perfect condition, 
is a frail structure — every moment liable to de- 
rangement — predisposed to numerous diseases, 
and subject to a thousand casualties. And if it 



308 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

escape all these, it cannot last long. It is ever 
undergoing perpetual changes, and the whole du- 
ration of life in a healthy individual may be said 
to consist of a given number of such changes ; 
each one, as it occurs, tells the number less — 
and if their regular operations are in no way 
disturbed, as soon as the full complement is fin- 
ished, life ceases. No human power can lengthen 
out its operations, or add a single stroke to the 
pulse. 

All that medicine can ever do, is to aid the re- 
cuperative powers in removing or overcoming 
whatever interferes with the due performance of 
the proper organic functions. This is the narrow 
ground to which all well-directed medical efforts 
are limited. Yet it is not to be despised on that 
account. Imperfect as it is, and inadequate as it 
ever must be to accomplish all that may be de- 
sired, it is nevertheless a priceless boon to hu- 
manity. Often, by removing some morbid agent 
which interferes with the operations of a vital 
organ and tends directly to destroy life, an indi- 
vidual is rescued from a premature death. By 
obviating, restraining or lessening the injurious 



INSUFFICIENCY OF MEDICINE. 309 

effects of morbid causes, pain is relieved, the du- 
ration of disease shortened, and the system 
aided in its efforts to return to a healthy condi- 
tion. Yet medicine does not pretend to confer 
immortality upon animal bodies. The dread 
mandate of the Most High, " Dust thou art, and 
unto dust thou shalt return," cannot be escaped; 
the final moment must come, when " no skill can 
fly nor power can save." 

When we consider the extensive relief that 
frail humanity is constantly receiving from medi- 
cal means, and the immense labor and sacrifice 
which it has cost the thousands who have devot- 
ed their lives to its cause, instead of reproaching 
it for its imperfections we should bless it for its 
benefits, and be devoutly thankful to the Great 
Author of all good for its merciful provision. 
But, unfortunately, men are not always thus dis- 
posed. Whenever the efforts of the physician 
are unsuccessful, the failure is thought to arise 
from his individual deficiency. The public make 
little or no allowance for the persistency or in- 
curable nature of many diseases, but appear to 
suppose that a physician who is really skilful 
27 



310 



QUACKERY UXM ASKED. 



should be able always to effect a cure ; they will 
not exercise that charity and forbearance to- 
wards physicians which is usually accorded to 
all other men. 

The doctor must forego every enjoyment of 
his own, and sacrifice every earthly comfort, upon 
the shortest notice ; his services are demanded in 
an imperious tone that is never used towards 
any other profession; and if he cannot instantly 
unravel the darkest mystery, and make a perfect 
diagnosis and prognosis in every case to which 
his attention is called, he is thought to be culpa- 
bly deficient. No such unreasonable demands 
are made of any other class of men. The attor- 
ney is allowed days, and perhaps weeks, to con- 
sult his authorities before giving an opinion upon 
some settled point of law. He may hesitate, or 
even give a wrong opinion at first, and if he cor- 
rect it afterwards it will be no disparagement to 
him. But the physician is required to be prompt 
and positive in his decisions; — his doubts, hon- 
estly expressed, are taken to be confessions of 
unpardonable ignorance. The public require 
merits in him which they expect to find nowhere 



INSUFFICIENCY OF MEDICINE. 311 

else ; they seem to think that he should know 
the patient's thoughts by his pulse, and be able 
to divine the character and give a history of his 
disease without making any inquiries. 

The foundation for these extravagant and er- 
roneous ideas has been laid by quackery, both 
without and within the profession, and everything 
that is designed to contribute to their encour- 
agement is reprehensible quackery. Every char- 
latan understands this state of public opinion, 
and turns it to his own advantage; he is bold, 
prompt and confident, and never forgets to boast 
of his great knowledge. 

The public mind should be disabused upon this 
subject, and the mask of presumption and arro- 
gance which hides ignorance and fraud should 
be torn off, and the world should learn 
more correctly to discriminate between true 
and false merit. But men sometimes appear 
determined to reject every reasonable sug- 
gestion, and to consider all such hints as arising 
from mercenary motives. The patient and his 
friends cannot be reconciled to his condition; he 
cannot afford to be sick, and therefore must be 
cured by some man or by some means forthwith. 



312 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

If a physician in whom he has confided for years 
cannot do it, or will not promise to do it, he will 
employ some one or make use of some nostrum 
that promises all he asks. Perhaps one physi- 
cian is dismissed and a second employed, and he 
in his turn dismissed and a third called ; and if 
the patient ever gets well, his recovery is as- 
cribed to the physician last in charge, although 
his treatment may have been nugatory or slightly 
injurious. This state of things opens a wide door 
to empirics and nostrums. Cancer doctors, con- 
sumption curers, and an innumerable multitude 
of infallible remedies for all diseases that flesh 
is heir to, stand thick around and demand admit- 
tance. Many an invalid has spent months, and 
perhaps years, in experimenting upon himself, 
with one remedy after another, always employ- 
ing the very best of the good, the newest of the 
new, and surest of the sure, until at last, like 
Paracelsus, he has died with a bottle of some in- 
fallible sanative by his side. Poor, deluded 
mortal ! he would heed no sound advice, because 
he believed that doctors were selfish; he there- 
fore followed an ignis fatuus. and it led him to 
his grave. 






REFLECTIONS. 313 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

REFLECTIONS. 

It is sometimes said that fashion rules the 
world, and it is certain that the sceptre of the 
fickle goddess is often observed in the province 
of medicine. The force of example is incalcula- 
ble. In this country each class in society is al- 
ways striving to imitate in appearance some class 
above it ; and such individuals as can, are ever 
making efforts to attain the highest rank. When 
their property or business relations will not al- 
low them the position to which they would as- 
pire — when dress, and show, and every other 
expedient, fails, they have one dernier resort; 
they can have, or pretend to have, some fashion- 
able disease, and be waited upon by the most 
fashionable physician in town. The doctor who 

attends Mrs. Judge and Mrs. Gen. , 

will of course be chosen. It is wonderful to see 
how many persons make it a regular business to 
27* 



314 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

be sick, or at least to be nervous and require the 
almost constant attention of some superfine medi- 
cal attendant. There are many such individuals, 
who, if we may believe them, are never well ; 
they are constantly suffering or anticipating pains 
in the head, or side, or somewhere else ; they are 
constantly on the lookout, and watch for pains 
with as much acumen as the hunter does for game. 
and are ever making use of some genteel remedy. 
Some of these exquisites would be ashamed to 
acknowledge themselves quite well, as that would 
be thought extremely vulgar ; and since this class 
of patients must be furnished with something 
adapted to their fastidious appetites, the more 
the articles which they use are attenuated, the 
better. A single sugar pellet, or a few drops of 
magnetized water, may be quite sufficient, if the 
dose can be repeated so as to keep the cure con- 
tinually going on. 

Can any one believe that these fashionable ef- 
feminates are the descendants of the Anglo-Sax- 
ons who first colonized America? Does the 
warm blood of the heroes of the Revolution 
course through such shadowy forms ? How far 



REFLECTIONS. 315 

back must we trace their genealogy to find the 
last glimpses of that sterling intellectual power 
which their ancestors possessed ? If the Ameri- 
can people should go on improving, as they call 
it ; in this way, not many generations would pass 
before, instead of the iron frames and giant in- 
tellects which our ancestors possessed, a commu- 
nity of Lilliputians, whose physical and intellec- 
tual measurement might well correspond with 
the dimensions of homoeopathic globules, would 
supply their places. 

We would not be uncharitable towards the 
sick or invalids of any class, nor turn a deaf ear 
to the slightest groan of suffering humanity. We 
are aware that much suffering is hidden from 
common observation, and that many pine in si- 
lence and go down to the grave without a mur- 
mur. We know, too, that females generally bear 
pain with far more fortitude and less complain- 
ing than men. But whilst we know and acknow- 
ledge all these things, we cannot shut our eyes 
to the vast influence which fashion is constantly 
exerting in favor of quackery. If the men of 
this generation would make use of the same kind 



318 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

of plain common sense which Benjamin Franklin, 
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson employed in 
their day, all the fascinating schemes of modern 
empiricism would be overthrown and demolished. 
The necessity and importance of a well-quali- 
fied and well-regulated medical profession can 
never be doubted by civilized men. Infidels may 
scoff at religion, and quiet men may see little 
need of lawyers, but all will acknowledge that 
the sick and wounded must be cared for ; and it 
must certainly be important that those on whom 
that care devolves, should be qualified for the 
task, and that some standard of qualifications 
should be established, in order to guard society, 
as far as possible, from unworthy and incompe- 
tent individuals. In despotic countries, the edict 
of a sovereign may fix the standard ; but in the 
United States, that standard must be settled by 
public opinion, and the greatest good of the 
greatest number should be the basis upon which 
it is predicated. Physicians will never be too 
well qualified. Let the standard be as high as 
will best promote the safety and welfare of so- 
ciety, and let all good men unite to sustain it. 



REFLECTIONS. 317 

Let the whole community be enlightened upon 
the subject of medicine, and be induced to exam- 
ine and judge of it with the same reason and 
plain common sense that all men exercise in 
their ordinary affairs. When these things have 
been done, all the most rational and most effi- 
cient means will have been employed for the re- 
moval of quackery. But we can never expect 
its complete extermination. History informs 
us that it has always existed in some form or 
other, and a consideration of the human propen- 
sities leads us to conclude that it always will. 
An insatiable thirst for the marvellous seems to 
be incident to the human mind, in all states and 
conditions of society. Man lives in the midst of 
mystery ; — if he looks back, or forward, or around 
him, he is constantly lost in wonder and amaze- 
ment ; and unless his mind is disciplined, culti- 
vated, and trained to reasoning, he is poorly 
qualified to separate facts from appearances, and 
truths from falsehoods — and even then the most 
cultivated intellects are often found to embrace 
obvious delusions. But it is acknowledged on 
all hands that nothing but the diffusion of intelli- 



318 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

gence can, with any hope of success, be used as 
a remedy against mistakes and frauds ; and when 
that fails, the case must be given up as hopeless 
or allowed to expire by its own limitation. 

Too much is always expected of medicine. It 
cannot accomplish all that the public or the pro- 
fession desire; and although it appears to be 
continually improving, and increasing in know- 
ledge and means of relief, yet the changing con- 
dition of society appears to increase the demands 
upon it in nearly the same degree. The science 
can never be expected to arrive at a state of 
perfection. There are intrinsic obstacles in its 
nature, which no human power can overcome. 
Nor would it be reasonable to suppose that all 
who engage in it are always every way worthy 
of that responsible vocation. Physicians arc not 
free from the common infirmities and errors of 
other men, and the standard of moral and intel- 
lectual merit by which they are to be governed 
is mainly confided to public opinion. Full per- 
fection cannot be found in any other calling, and 
it certainly should not be looked for in this. If 
the public bestow the same attention and respect, 



REFLECTIONS. 319 

and the same pecuniary compensation, upon em- 
pirics, that they bestow upon regularly educated 
physicians, it tends to bring down the standard 
of professional merit, and remove the barriers 
that should protect society from ignorance and 
fraud. Therefore whatever tends to discourage 
or drive educated and reliable men out of the 
profession, or to encourage and sustain ignorant 
and irresponsible individuals in it, is at war with 
the best interests of society. 

We say nothing about the rights and interests 
of the profession or its members, but simply im- 
plore all good men to view the subject in its 
proper light, and use their influence to protect 
the public from deception and abuse. We shall 
enter into no argument in behalf of the profes- 
sion itself. Let suffering humanity do that; her 
groans, and tears, and faltering whispers, are 
more potent than arguments and declamations ; 
let these be heard, and we are satisfied. These 
demand the best efforts of men of learning and 
skill, men in whose ability, honor and fidelity the 
world may confide. They ask us to raise the 
standard of professional acquirements, to extend 



320 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

the term of pupilage, and require a more tho- 
rough course of clinical instruction in order to 
protect society from empiricism "within as well 
as without the profession ; they demand the high- 
est moral standard, a standard that shall exclude 
all profanity and dishonesty, a standard that 
shall resemble in purity the mountain snow, and 
in firmness the mountain adamant. 

The advocates of every new empirical scheme 
have always indulged the false hope that their 
system was soon to supersede all others. So 
said the ancient quacks, and so say the moderns. 
More than forty years ago the disciples of Hah- 
nemann asserted that in a very few years the 
entire system of regular medicine would be 
overthrown and superseded by homoeopathy; 
and the same prediction has been continually 
reiterated by its advocates ever since. And 
how have these predictions been verified ? Has 
the regular system of rational medicine — the 
system which quacks delight to call the old sys- 
tem — faltered and declined, or showed signs of 
decay, during any time past ? Far otherwise. 
Her numbers and resources, her means of useful- 



REFLECTIONS. 321 

ness, her reputation and influence throughout the 
world, have ever been increasing. And who 
that knows anything of the world can be silly 
enough to suppose for a moment that any empi- 
rical scheme can ever overthrow, or in the least 
harm, the established system of scientific medi- 
cine ? It is founded upon reason and well-estab- 
lished truths, and is essentially the same every- 
where, in all countries. Differences as to cli- 
mate, modes of living, social and domestic 
habits, may to some extent vary medical treat- 
ment ; but the essential principles of the science 
are acknowledged to be everywhere the same, 
among all Christian nations. And the doctrines 
taught, and remedial means used at the colleges 
and hospitals in London, Paris, Vienna and 
Edinburgh, are essentially the same as those 
that are taught and employed in all the medical 
colleges and hospitals in the United States. The 
immense lazarettoes that are spread over the 
habitable globe, with all their preparations and 
appliances for the relief and comfort of suffering 
humanity, are exclusively the fruits of the labors 
and the persevering and self-sacrificing efforts of 
28 



322 QUACKERY UXMASKED. 

rational medicine. These, with their millions of 
inmates, are so many fortresses which she has 
established; and who but a fanatic or idiot can 
suppose that any scheme which quackery may 
devise will ever be able to destroy them ? As 
well might a corporal's guard undertake to con- 
quer every citadel in the known world. 

Political revolutions may dethrone monarch* 
or abolish republics, and commotions may over- 
turn established institutions of society; nations 
may be overwhelmed and conquered by enemies; 
but scientific medicine must continue undisturb- 
ed, every where the same and invincible. 

Although quackery is everywhere acknow- 
ledged to be a crying evil, some appear to think 
that it should not be opposed. You can do no- 
thing, say they, to suppress or diminish it ; it is 
useless to try. Is this good philosophy ? Do 
sound statesmen or moralists ever act upon such 
a principle ? Certainly not. The most efficient 
legal and moral means are constantly employed 
against vice. And will any physician who re- 
gards the honor and usefulness of his profes- 
sion, or any intelligent citizen who values the 



REFLECTIONS. 323 

good of society, stand still and look on in cul- 
pable apathy whilst the tide of empiricism rolls 
on, prostrating at the same time the honor of 
the profession and the best interests of huma- 
nity ? Shall the public continue to contribute 
its millions annually, to enrich empirics and nos- 
trum-mongers, and enable them to build palaces, 
purchase cities, and fill their coffers with trea- 
sures filched from the hard earnings of the poor ? 
Shall the widow deprive herself of bread, whilst 
she gives her last mite for some worthless nos- 
trum? And will no one raise his voice against 
it ? Evils of other kinds are suppressed, abat- 
ed, or kept in abeyance, by public opinion, and 
no wise moralist thinks proper to let them alone 
to take their own way, hoping they may eventu- 
ally die out or be superseded by some greater 
evils. This mistaken policy has too long pre- 
vailed. It is idle to say that nothing can be 
done. Men adopt false notions for want of cor- 
rect information. Spread before them the neces- 
sary intelligence, and public opinion will, to a 
great extent, correct errors and reform abuses. 
Knowledge is the sovereign remedy against 



324 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

error ; and although its effects may not be 
seen immediately, it will eventually succeed. 
We are aware that opposition to errors some- 
times makes their advocates more desperate, 
and it would not be strange if such mani- 
festations should be witnessed in the present 
case. But these struggles may always be regard- 
ed as the expiring throes of morbid existences. 
Truth must eventually triumph over error. 
" Vent, vidi, vici" is inscribed upon her banner. 
Although the human race has tenanted this 
gfobe nearly six thousand years, rational medi- 
cine may be considered even now to be in its 
infancy. During all the dark ages, a supersti- 
tious priesthood claimed supreme dominion over 
all human institutions. Medicine was held to be 
within their exclusive province, and none were 
allowed to question clerical authority or to offer 
any changes in medical matters. Under that state 
of things, generation succeeded generation, and 
century followed century, whilst medicine con- 
tinued chained to the blind car of a bigoted 
priesthood. Whenever laymen attempted to 
detach the art of healing from clerical embrace. 



REFLECTIONS. 325 

and make it a distinct profession, they were 
visited with the severest rebukes, and capital 
punishments were often inflicted upon such as 
dared to offer innovations to clerical dogmas. 
The escape from the paws of that fearful lion 
has been by slow and dangerous movements. 
But as soon as it got free, and had become a 
distinct and independent existence, it made 
efforts to expunge all the superstition with which 
it had been incumbered, and to establish itself 
as a rational science. Yet tradition perpetuat- 
ed superstitious notions among the common peo- 
ple, and it is evident that, until the art of print- 
ing came into use, medical science could make 
but slow and feeble progress. Nor did the 
sacerdotal power release its hold upon the pro- 
fession suddenly and entirely. Even now, in 
pagan countries, medicine is controlled by the 
priesthood. It is but little more than two cen- 
turies since the true course of the circulation 
was ascertained by Harvey. Considering all 
the obstacles that have ever stood in the way of 
her progress, it must be acknowledged that 
she has done all, and more than all, that could 
28* 



326 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

be expected of her since her freedom from 
sacerdotal power. She has set up her colleges 
and spread out her hospitals in all the civilized 
world. In these the true science is nurtured 
and cultivated, and from these all future improve- 
ments must be expected to proceed. 

It is a fact that stands out in bold relief in 
medical history, that all opposition to truth has 
come from bigotry and superstition, and never 
from the genuine profession. Here is a hint, 
which, if regarded, would serve as an infallible 
guide in judging of medical schemes. Bigotry 
and superstition may reject truths, but scientific 
medicine never has, and we believe never will, 
reject any thing but falsehood. Allow the sci- 
ence to take care of itself, and let no obstacles 
be thrown in the way of its progress, and it will 
undoubtedly go on improving and increasing in 
its resources for many centuries yet to come. 



'Now what are the inducements which the pro- 
fession of medicine offers to those who may en- 
gage in it ? Any one who will, may immolate 



REFLECTIONS. 327 

himself on the altar of humanity ; but what shall 
the individual gain to himself? Medicine is not 
a lucrative business ; the same capital, invested 
in almost any other, would bring a more sure, 
more speedy and better return. Its gains are 
tardy and uncertain, and the life-time labors of 
many worthy men bring them nothing but a hum- 
ble subsistence. As a class of men, the physicians 
in the United States are poorly rewarded for 
their services. This may be partially owing to 
the plethoric condition of the profession, but the 
great patronage and support that is everywhere 
given to quackery is the principal cause. If all 
the money that is annually paid for nostrums, 
and the services of quacks, were given to the mem- 
bers of the regular profession, they would be 
amply paid and society greatly benefited. No 
one who values his liberty and personal comfort 
should look for it in this profession. The physi- 
cian lives an unsteady, irregular and precarious 
life. He is certain of nothing; he can have no 
established hours of labor or rest ; his physical 
and intellectual exercises, and even his devo- 
tions, are the sport of the winds. He is often 



328 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

obliged to substitute night for day, and day for 
night; he is often hurried away from a repast 
of which, with an ardent appetite, he was about 
to partake, and public opinion seems to require 
him to be ever ready to sacrifice any comfort of 
his own, at the bidding of others. The uneven 
tenor of his life is not congenial to the best in- 
terests of his physical or intellectual being ; by 
it, the former becomes attenuated, and the latter 
broken into fragments. 

This profession is not the proper sphere for 
ambition. Its duties and responsibilities are in 
general incompatible with civil office. But when 
that is not the case, public opinion often appears 
to forbid all such aspirations, and assign public 
honors to others, who, though not more compe- 
tent or more worthy, are yet more at liberty to 
discharge the requisite duties; so that the phy- 
sician is to a great extent enshrined in his own 
special province — his bounds are set. over which 
he is not allowed to pass. The public seem to 
think that every fibre in his flesh, and every drop 
of blood in his veins,, is the lawful property of 
humanity. Of the intrinsic value of his services. 



REFLECTIONS. 329 

the public are not competent to judge, and con- 
sequently commendation or censure is often 
strangely misapplied. 

But we must pursue this side of the picture no 
farther. Let us turn away from it, and forget 
it. On its reverse, we may find a few green 
spots, an occasional oasis, or some wild flower. 
It is a comfort to rest after toil, to feast after 
fasting, and to sleep after watching. It is plea- 
sant to meet friends, and enjoy their cheerful 
greetings and social intercourse, or share with 
them their anxieties and mingle our tears with 
their sorrows. When there is no excess of cold, 
none of heat, and no pelting storm without to 
annoy us, it is pleasant to go abroad on a visit, 
to breathe the pure air and enjoy the variegated 
beauties and perfumes of nature ; and if on such 
an occasion we happen to see others, whom we 
have helped to raise from a languishing bed, par- 
taking of the same enjoyment, it greatly enhan- 
ces our own happiness. And if the pecuniary 
compensation for all our labors enables us to 
supply the wants of our families, we are satis- 
fied. But the most precious reward which the 



330 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

physician ever receives, consists in the blessings 
of those who were ready to perish. His great- 
est satisfaction springs from the thought that he 
has been able to afford so much relief to suffer- 
ing humanity. He regrets no labor or suffering 
of his own, when he reflects that his efforts have 
assuaged the sorrows and dried the tears of so 
many individuals and families. This sublime 
consolation is his proudest and highest reward. 

Heroes may boast of their valor, and glory 
in the number of their slain, they may mingle 
the shouts of triumph with the groans of the 
dying, exult over prostrate humanity, and proud- 
ly bear away the laurels of victory from the 
field of carnage. But the glory of medicine 
consists not in destroying but in saving life, not 
in making wounds but in binding them up ; and 
her proudest chaplets are the spontaneous offer- 
ings of grateful hearts. 

A brief extract from an address of Professor 
Simpson ; of Edinburgh, to a class of graduates, 
shall close this chapter. 

" Talk not of the heroism of him who flies to 



REFLECTIONS. 331 

arms at the sound of the trumpet, with the phan- 
tom of glory beckoning him onward ; somewhere 
for him in the dim future there may be honor and 
power, of which he dreams that he may be the 
possessor, and hope whispers that he shall bear 
a charmed life amidst the smoke and din of bat- 
tle. But it bears no analogy to the heroism of 
him who voluntarily gives up his life to the in- 
terests of humanity, who consents to die that 
others may live, and makes this sacrifice, not that 
he may be crowned with glory, but that he may, 
by suffering death himself, bind up other broken 
hearts, and heal other wounded spirits. " 



332 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 



REGULAR AND IRREGULAR PRACTITIONERS IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

The following table has been prepared from 
statistical returns, from entire States in some 
instances, and from cities and counties in others ; 
and where no returns have been received, a com- 
parative estimate has been made — so that al- 
though it is not presumed to be entirely correct 
in every particular, it is believed to be an ap- 
proximation to a fair exhibition of the different 
classes of practitioners. We are sorry to find 
so large a number of empirics in the United 
States; but, at the same time, it is gratifying to 
know that in Great Britain, and everywhere on 
the continent of Europe, the relative number is 
far less, and we are well assured that as the 
public become more and more enlightened upon 
the subject, quackery of every kind will be less 
and less patronized here. 

The whole number of regular physicians in 
the United States is about 31,000. 



NUMBER OF PRACTITIONERS. 333 

Irregulars, as follows : 

Homoeopathists, about 1000 

Hydropathists, about 400 

Female Physicians, 300 

Eclectics, 800 

Botanies, 600 

Chrono-Thermalists, 300 

Besides the foregoing, there are — 

Indian doctors, Astrologic, 

Clairvoyants, Magnetic, 

Natural Bone-setters, Uriscopic, 

Mesmerists, *Tth sons, 

Galvanic, Blowpipe doctors, 

&c. &c. &c. 

With a large number of itinerant nostrum 
venders ; perhaps, in all, three or four thousand. 

The whole number of regular physicians in the 
State of Massachusetts, at the present time, is 
about fourteen hundred ; and the number of ir- 
regulars, of all sorts, is about two hundred. 

The number of regular physicians in the State 
of New York, is about five thousand two hun- 
dred ; and the number of irregulars, of all sorts, 
about eight hundred. 

The whole number of regular physicians in the 
State of Ohio, is two thousand five hundred and 
29 



334 QUACKERY UNMASKED. 

forty; and the number of irregulars, of all sorts, 
seven hundred and forty-three. 

The city of New York has about one thousand 
regular physicians, and about three hundred 
quacks. 

There are in Great Britain thirty-nine or forty 
medical universities, which have, in all, about 
five hundred regular professors, with a large 
number of subordinate teachers. The average 
annual attendance at these institutions is about 
three thousand. 

The average annual attendance at the regular 
medical schools in the United States, is about 
five thousand, and the annual number of gradu- 
ates about one thousand. 



\V 



